The 40th GST council meeting will be held on Friday under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Members of the GST Council will discuss the issues over videoconferencing for the first time post the Covid-19 lockdown.

These are issues GST Council may discuss today:

1) A downward revision of late fee for not filed old returns would be considered in the meeting. At present, the fine is ₹50 per day subject to ₹10,000 if an entity does not file the GST return for six months. There is huge pressure on the traders due to the penalty for not filing of GST returns.

2) GST Council is expected to consider revising late filing fee for returns from July 2017 to January 2020. Some other compliance-related relief measures are also expected to be taken up in the meeting.The government has already waived late fee for filing GSTR-3B returns from February 2020 to May 2020.

3) The impact of Covid-19 on states may also come up during the discussions in the meeting as states are facing a paucity of funds The Council will likely decide on ways to garner funds to compensate states for the revenue loss due to Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation.

4) The GST Council is not likely to discuss the rate tweaks, 1) Increase in the tax rate can hamper the economic recovery. 2) Decrease in the tax rate can be a deterrent to much needed fund in the govts’ coffers.

5) The meeting would discuss the impact of the pandemic on revenues of the Centre and states and ways to breach the revenue gap. Faced with dismal collection and extended deadline for filing returns, the government has refrained from releasing the monthly GST revenue collection figures for the months of April and May.

There will be no late fee for those who have no tax liability and have not filed returns between July 2017 and January 2020, the government announced today while easing compliance rules for Goods and Services Tax (GST) compliance norms at its first meeting since the nationwide lockdown was implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus pandemic. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also ruled out any tax increase. “States said this is not the time to increase taxes and so we deferred all proposals to increase taxes,” Ms Sitharman said.
The government decided to defer increasing GST on textiles and garments, fertilisers and footwear was as all GST Counciil members felt lockdown has just been lifted.

The government also reduced interest on late GST filing for small businesses with a turnover up to Rs 5 crore from 18 per cent to 9 per cent for furnishing late returns for months of February, March and April 2020 beyond July 6, 2020.

“The small taxpayers will not be charged any interest till the notified dates for relief (staggered up to 6th July 2020)and thereafter 9 per cent interest will be charged till 30.09.2020,” the government said in a press release.

n wake of COVID-19 pandemic, for taxpayers having aggregate turnover up to Rs. 5 crore, further relief was provided by waiver of late fees and interest if the returns in form GSTR-3B for the supplies effected in the months of May, June and July, 2020 are furnished by September, 2020, the release said.

To facilitate taxpayers who could not get their cancelled GST registrations restored in time, an opportunity is being provided for filing of application for revocation of cancellation of registration up to September 30, 2020, in all cases where registrations have been cancelled till June 12, 2020.