17th GST Council Meeting – Highlights & Updates

As the deadline for the GST roll out is approaching i.e. 1st July 2017, the 17th GST council meeting was held on 18th June, 2017 to discuss and finalise some of the rules and proposals. 

Here are the important updates of the 17th GST council meeting.

• The GST council has confirmed the implementation of GST w.e.f. 1st July, 2017. And there would be special launch to be held by the council in Delhi from 30th June midnight & 1st July.

• GST council extended the date of filing the returns by trade and industry by two months. However the taxpayer would need to file the tax on simple return i.e. Form GSTR-3B which contains summary of outward and inward supplies on self declaration basis for the month of July and August on the 20th of the following month.

• An Invoice wise details of outward supplies  in GSTR-1 needs to be filed for the month of July by September 5 and for the month of August 2017 by 20th of September 2017 and GSTR 2 for these two months would be filed thereafter.

• The GST rate on hotels with tariff between 5000 to 7500 would be 18% as fixed by the council. While the same would be 28% on hotels with tariff above 7500. However full ITC will be available to the service provider.

• 5 star restaurants or above rated hotels will be liable to pay 18% tax on the supply of food and drinks with full availability of ITC.

• Transportation of goods in vessels ships will be available for payment of 5% GST with availability of ITC

•  State run lottery will be taxable at a rate of 12% while the Government authorised private lotteries will be taxable at the rate of 28%.

• Following three products would not be eligible for composition scheme and composition schemes will not be available for the manufacturer of such products.

• 1. Tobacco
  2. Ice Cream
  3. Pan Masala.

• E-way bill will be implemented later on once the rules of the same will be finalised. Till then an alternative E-way bill will be introduced to allow the states with their current system.

• Turnover limit for the composition levy for dealers in special category states has been set to 50 lacs. These special category states are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, and Himachal Pradesh. It should be noted that the threshold limit for the state uttarakhand and the rest of India would be 75 lacs.