The 57th meeting of the GST Council has been rescheduled for the second time and will now be held on October 8, with a wide-ranging reform agenda expected to include changes to registration, returns and refunds as well as proposals to reduce criminal provisions under the indirect tax regime.
The meeting, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising finance ministers or representatives of states and Union Territories, was scheduled to be held on October 7. The GST Council Secretariat said in an office memorandum that the meeting had been shifted by a day due to “unavoidable circumstances”.
Second change in date
This is the second rescheduling of the 57th Council meeting. It was originally scheduled for September 12 but was moved to October 7 because India hosted the annual BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13.
With the latest change, the Council will now meet on Thursday, October 8. While the Secretariat attributed the postponement to unavoidable circumstances, it did not provide further details on the reason for shifting the meeting by a day.
The meeting assumes significance as the Centre and states prepare to consider a series of procedural and policy changes aimed at making the Goods and Services Tax regime easier for businesses while reducing disputes and compliance costs.
Registration reforms on table
Changes to the GST registration process are expected to be among the major items before the Council. The government has been attempting to strike a balance between making registration easier for genuine businesses and preventing the creation of fraudulent entities used for generating fake invoices and claiming wrongful input tax credit.
The Council is expected to discuss ways to simplify registration procedures, particularly for smaller businesses and e-commerce suppliers, while strengthening technology-based risk assessment.
The proposals could reduce the need for physical intervention in lower-risk cases while allowing tax authorities to concentrate enforcement resources on registrations flagged as suspicious.
Returns may get simpler
Simplification of GST returns is also expected to figure prominently in Thursday’s deliberations. Businesses have repeatedly sought greater alignment between different returns and fewer compliance requirements where transaction information is already available electronically.
The proposed reforms are intended to reduce duplication and improve the use of data already available on the GST Network. A more automated system could also reduce discrepancies that often result in notices being issued to taxpayers.
The broader objective is to move towards a compliance framework in which routine transactions require less manual intervention while potentially risky cases receive closer scrutiny.
Faster refunds proposed
The Council is also expected to consider reforms to the GST refund mechanism, an area that has significant implications for exporters and businesses with accumulated input tax credit.
Proposals under consideration include faster processing of refunds and greater use of automated risk assessment. Low-risk claims could potentially be cleared substantially faster, reducing the amount of working capital locked up while businesses wait for refunds.
The government has been examining a mechanism under which a large proportion of eligible refunds could be released provisionally, subject to subsequent verification. Any such proposal, however, will become policy only if approved by the Council and subsequently notified.
Arrest powers under review
Among the most significant proposals likely to be discussed is the decriminalisation of certain GST offences. Sources have indicated that the Council could consider removing or substantially restricting the arrest powers available to GST officers in specified cases.
The proposal forms part of a broader effort to distinguish deliberate tax fraud from procedural violations and genuine commercial disputes. Businesses have frequently argued that criminal proceedings should not be triggered in cases involving interpretational differences or technical non-compliance.
The Council could examine which offences should continue to attract prosecution and which can be dealt with through monetary penalties, recovery of tax and interest.
Any decision to alter arrest and prosecution provisions would require appropriate legislative changes and would therefore not take effect merely through discussion at the Council meeting.
Input tax credit in focus
Improving the flow of input tax credit is another major area expected to be considered. ITC is central to the GST framework because businesses can offset tax paid on inputs against their final tax liability, preventing cascading taxation.
Disputes over eligibility, invoice mismatches and supplier compliance have nevertheless remained a major source of litigation and blocked credit. The Council is expected to examine measures that could reduce such disputes without weakening safeguards against fraudulent claims.
Greater automation and invoice matching could play an important role, allowing genuine credit to flow more smoothly while identifying unusual transactions for scrutiny.
Dispute resolution push
Policy reforms aimed at reducing GST litigation are also expected to be discussed. Eight years after the rollout of GST, disputes involving classification, valuation, input tax credit and procedural compliance continue to consume significant administrative and judicial resources.
The Council is likely to examine whether more issues can be resolved administratively or through simplified procedures rather than prolonged litigation.
The proposed changes fit into the government’s broader emphasis on ease of doing business and reducing unnecessary criminalisation of economic offences. The challenge will be to simplify enforcement without weakening the system’s ability to act against organised tax fraud and fake invoicing networks.
Decisions awaited Thursday
The GST Council is the principal decision-making body for the indirect tax system and works through consensus between the Centre and states. Recommendations made at its meetings can lead to changes in tax rates, exemptions, procedures and the GST legal framework.
Several of the measures expected to come up on October 8 remain proposals and their final shape will depend on the Council’s deliberations. Recommendations requiring amendments to the GST laws will also have to proceed through the relevant legislative and notification processes.
Thursday’s meeting will therefore be watched less for changes in individual tax rates and more for whether the Council approves a broader overhaul of the machinery through which businesses register, file returns, claim refunds and resolve disputes under GST.