India’s GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, deferred the decision on GST on online gaming, horse racing and casinos and recommended decriminalisation of three types of offences.
The 48th GST Council, which comprises of FM Sitharaman, the Minister of State (Revenue) and the State Finance Ministers, met on December 17 after a gap of 6 months. The Council said that the offences which would not be criminalised are ‘obstruction or preventing any officer in discharge of his duties’; ‘deliberate tempering of material evidence’; and ‘failure to supply the information.
Decriminalisation of offences
Further, the threshold of launching prosecution for some GST offences has also been doubled to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1 crore earlier. “GST Council agreed to decriminalise certain offences, and the threshold of launching prosecution has been doubled to Rs 2 crore,” said Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra.
GST on online gaming, casinos
The Revenue Secy added that the council could also not discuss GST on online gaming and casinos as the report of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue, chaired by Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma, filed its report just a few days back.
Other key decisions
The 48th GST Council could only discuss and decide on 8 out of the 15 agenda items due to paucity of time, Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters, adding that the items not considered included one pertaining to setting up of appellate tribunals for GST. The council couldn’t take up the issue of mechanism to curb tax evasion in pan masala and gutkha businesses.
FM Sitharaman stated that no new taxes have been brought. Additionally, the GST Council has also done away with the five per cent GST currently applied on the husk of pulses including chilka and concentrates including chuni/churi, khanda.
The Council also agreed on exemptions on no claim bonus under insurance policies.
Clearing the air on SUVs, the council recommended that vehicle SUVs having an engine capacity of more than 1,500 cc and length exceeding 4,000 mm with a ground clearance of 170 mm or above will attract a 22 per cent compensation cess.
The GST rate on “ethyl alcohol supplied to refineries for blending with motor spirit (petrol)” has also been slashed to 5 per cent from 18 per cent.
Meanwhile, the last 47th GST Council meeting held in June had directed that the GoM on casino, race course and online gaming to re-evaluate the issues in its terms of reference based on further inputs from states.
