37th GST Council Meeting Highlights

Sakshi Jain, CA LLB at March 13, 2023

37th GST Council Meeting

On Friday 20th September 2019, Union Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman announced GST rate revisions on various items and there are certain policy changes as well. The New rates will come into effect from 1st October 2019.

Revised GST Rate as per 37th GST Council Meeting

Here is the list of items whose GST rates are revised in this 37^th GST Council Meeting:

S.No	Item	Current GST Rate	New GST Rate
1	Beverages containing caffeine	18%	28% + 12% CESS
2	Plates and cups made out of leaves and hides	5%	Nil
3	Outdoor catering (without ITC)	18%	5%
4	Supplies of railway coaches or wagons (without refund of accumulated ITC)	5%	12%
5	Diamond Job work	5%	1.50%
6	Job work other than Diamond job work	18%	12%
7	Woven/non-woven polyethylene bags	18%	12%
8	Marine Fuel	18%	5%
9	Almond Milk	Nil	18%
10	Hotels where room tariff is 7501 INR or above	28%	18%
11	Hotels where room tariff is 1001 INR but less than 7501 INR	18%	12%
12	Dried Tamarind	5%	Nil
13	Slide Fastener	18%	12%
14	Wet grinders that consist of stones as a grinder	12%	5%
15	Semi Precious stones cutting and polishing	3%	0.25%
16	Specified goods for petroleum operation under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP)	-	5%

Changes in CESS Rate

In the 37^th GST Council meeting, the CESS rate for petrol and diesel motor vehicle has also been revised. Let us understand this with a table:

S.No	Item	Current CESS Rate	New CESS Rate
1	Petrol motor vehicle having seating capacity of 10-13 passengers	15%	1%
2	Petrol motor vehicle having seating capacity of 10-13 passengers	15%	3%

Supplies Exempted as per 37^th GST Council meeting

Here is the list of supplies that are exempted as per 37^th GST Council meet:

Any supply to FOA (Food and Agricultural Organization) for some specific projects in India.
Import of defense goods that are not manufactured indigenously till the year 2024
Supplies to International Federation of Association Football(FIFA) for the U17 Women’s Football World Cup in India.
Export of silver and Platinum by specified agencies such as Diamond India Limited
Import of silver and Platinum by specified agencies such as Diamond India Limited

Policy Changes

The GST Council recommended the following policy changes too, however, these changes will come into effect from the date of CBIC notification:

Waiver of GSTR-9A for composition taxpayers for the financial year 2017-18 and 2018-2019.
Furnishing GSTR-9 is optional for a taxpayer whose turnover is up to 2 Crore INR for the financial year 2017-18 and 2018-2019.
New GST Returns will be implemented from April 2020 that were earlier proposed to be implemented from October 2019.
Soon the taxpayer cannot claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) until he has furnished GSTR-1.
An officers committee to be constituted will review the GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C and will try to make the Annual GST Return Simplified.
An integrated system with refund disbursed by single authority will be introduced from 24th September 2019.
AADHAAR may become mandatory for GST registration and for claiming refund under GST.
Fish meal and parts of agricultural machinery to be exempted for a specified period.
Suitable amendments in CGST, SGST and UTGST Act for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh.
As Appellate Tribunals are yet to be functional the last date to file appeals may be extended.
Post Sale Discount Circular 105 CT dated 29 June 2019 taken back.
To control nuisance of fraudulent invoices and refunds, the committee decided to provide reasonable restriction on passing ITC from risky taxpayers to new risky taxpayers.
Circular may issue for uniformity in application of GST Refund application across all jurisdictions.

About the Author

Sakshi Jain, CA LLB

Content Manager

I am a content and marketing manager at Masters India. I am also a tax and finance content writer. I also write academic books on accounts and tax. I have an experience of 7+ years in Income Tax Read more...

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