GST Council Meet: GSTR Filing Deadline Extended, Lotteries To Be Taxed At Uniform Rate

At the 38th GST Council meeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Wednesday, it was decided to extend the deadline for GSTR 9 and GSTR 9C return filing and have single tax rate on lotteries. The last date for GSTR 9 and GSTR 9C return filing for 2017-18 has been extended to 31 January 31, 2020, from 31 December 2019.

Among other decisions, the GST Council exempted long term lease on industrial plots to facilitate setting up of industrial parks.

GST rates on land leases will become applicable from 1 January 2020.

In the meeting, which comes at a time when the government's GST revenue has been fallen short of the target, presentation on augmentation of revenue was made but rate hike was not part of it.

The Council will be making decisions based on the outcome of a study on revenue data.

It was also decided to relax the penalty for non-filing of GSTR-1 from July 2017.

Uniform rate of 18 percent will be applicable on woven and non-woven bags.

Input tax credit to be restricted to 10 percent from 20 earlier if invoices not uploaded.

The Central Government has set Rs 1.10 lakh crore a month as revenue target for the remaining four months of the current fiscal year.

Further, Sitharaman met her counterparts from state and Union Territory governments on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming Union Budget for the financial year 2020-21.