GST Council Recommends To Decriminalise Certain Offences

The GST Council at its meeting today recommended to decriminalise certain offences u/s 132, increase in threshold of amount of tax for prosecution and reduction in amount of compounding in GST.

Decriminalization under GST: The Council has recommended to:

• raise the minimum threshold of tax amount for launching prosecution under GST from Rs. One Crore to Rs. Two Crores, except for the offence of issuance of invoices without supply of goods or services or both;
• reduce the compounding amount from the present range of 50% to 150% of tax amount to the range of 25% to 100%; decriminalize certain offences specified under clause (g), (j) and (k) of sub-section (1) of section 132 of CGST Act, 2017, viz.-
• obstruction or preventing any officer in discharge of his duties;deliberate tempering of material evidence;
• failure to supply the information.

Refund to unregistered persons:

There is no procedure for claim of refund of tax borne by the unregistered buyers in cases where the contract/ agreement for supply of services, like construction of flat/house and long-term insurance policy, is cancelled and the time period of issuance of credit note by the concerned supplier is over.

"The Council recommended amendment in CGST Rules, 2017, along with issuance of a circular, to prescribe the procedure for filing application of refund by the unregistered buyers in such cases," a government release stated.