39th GST Council Meeting

The GST Council recently concluded its 39^th meeting and took major decisions about GST rates to be applied for various commodities from mobile phones and parts to matchsticks.

GST Council

The GST Council is a constitutional body introduced in 2016 by the 101^st Constitutional Amendment Act. It was constituted under the article 279A of the Constitution. It is headed by the Finance Minister and is composed of the states’ ministers of finance or taxation and union state minister of revenue.

Decision Making in the Council

The decision making in the council is by voting. The council is federal in nature i.e. both the states and centre are represented in it. The vote of the central government has a weightage of 1/3^rd of the total votes cast while the votes of states (taken together) weighs 2/3^rd of the total votes cast.

Major Decisions of the 39^th Meeting

Some of the major decisions taken at the 39^th meeting are:

• GST on mobile phones and certain parts to be increased to 18% from 12%.
• GST on MRO (maintenance repair overhaul) services of aircraft reduced to 5% from 18%.
• GST on handmade and machine-made matchsticks rationalised to 12%.
• Delayed GST payment will attract interest on net tax liability from July.

GSTR-1

The GSTR-1 is a periodic filing of the monthly returns of outward supplies/ sale. It is to be filed by every business registered under the GST. The meeting also made changes to the GSTR-1 filing process:

• Turnover more than 1.5 crore INR -to be filed before 10^th of the following month.

Turnover up to 1.5 crore INR -to be filed before 13^th of the following month.