GST Council / Uniform tax will be imposed on milk, big announcement in GST council meeting

GST Council: Many big decisions have been taken in the first GST Council meeting of the year. The Finance Ministers of the states and union territories were also present in this meeting chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Finance Minister has given this information in a media interaction and said that the GST Council has recommended the waiver of interest and penalty on demand notices issued under Section 73 of the GST Act.

Uniform tax will be imposed on milk

Services like platform tickets by Indian Railways have been exempted from GST. The Finance Minister said that the GST Council has recommended a uniform rate of 12 percent on all milk cartons. The Council has recommended the waiver of interest on penalty on tax demand notices. The GST Council has recommended a limit of Rs 20 lakh for filing an appeal before the Appellate Tribunal by tax officials. In this, a limit of Rs 1 crore has been fixed for the High Court and Rs 2 crore for the Supreme Court. The GST Council has given a tax exemption of Rs 20,000 per person per month to the income earned through hostels outside educational institutions.

Provision of 5% GST

Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister P Keshav said on Saturday that the GST Council has sent the recommendation to exempt the fertilizer sector from the existing five percent GST to the Group of Ministers. Now the council will consider this issue. The council discussed reducing the GST on nutrients and raw materials in the interest of fertilizer manufacturing companies and farmers. This was recommended by the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers in February.

At present, GST is levied on fertilizers at the rate of five percent, while raw materials like sulfuric acid and ammonia have a higher GST rate of 18 percent. Speaking to reporters after the 53rd meeting of the GST Council, Keshav said that the proposal to reduce the GST rate on fertilizers has been sent to the Group of Ministers (GoM). The issue of reduction in tax on fertilizers was placed before the GST Council in the 45th and 47th meetings held in September 2021 and June 2022. However, at that time the Council did not recommend any change in the rates. The GST Council met on Saturday after eight months. The last meeting of the Council was held on October 7, 2023.