GST Council Meet: GST Council Extends Anti-Profiteering Authority’s Tenure And Return Filing Deadline

The Goods and Service Tax Council on Friday extended the tenure of the anti-profiteering authority by two years and approved imposing a penalty of up to 10 percent on entities not passing on benefits of GST rate cuts to consumers.

The tenure of National Anti-Profiteering Authority has been extended by two years till Nov. 30, 2021, Revenue Secretary AB Pandey told reporters after the 35th meeting of the Council.

Soon after GST was rolled out from July 1, 2017, the government had approved setting up the NAA for two years to deal with complaints by consumers against companies for not passing on GST rate cut benefits. The NAA came into existence on Nov. 30, 2017, after its Chairman B N Sharma assumed charge. So far, the NAA has passed 67 orders in various cases and complaints still keep coming in.

Also, the Council extended the date for filing annual GST returns by two months to August 30, Pandey said, adding the one-form new GST return filing system will be applicable from January 1, 2020. It has been decided to allow the use of Aadhaar by businesses to register with GST-Network.

The Council, which is headed by the union finance minister and comprises representatives of all states and union territories, also approved an electronic invoicing system and e-ticketing in multiplexes. Pandey said the proposal to reduce GST rate on EVs to 5 percent from the current 12 percent and that on electric charger to 12 percent from 18 percent to the fitment committee for fine tuning.