Next GST Council Meet Scheduled For May 28: Check Key Issues To Be Addressed

On her twitter handle on Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that she would hold the next Goods and Service Tax (GST) council meet on May 28 through video conferencing mode.

Next GST Council Meet Scheduled For May 28: Check Key Issues To Be Addressed

"Smt Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the 43rd GST Council meeting via video conferencing at 11 AM in New Delhi on 28th May 2021," said the Twitter post.

The last GST meeting was held on October 5, 2020. And now after a gap of over six months, owing to the demand from state finance ministries of Punjab and West Bengal, the GST meet is scheduled later during the month.

Earlier, during the week, Amit Mitra, state finance minister of West Bengal wrote to the finance minister to hold an urgent GST Council meet for deliberating on the crucial aspect of augmenting the compensation amounting to Rs. 1.56 trillion that has been allocated for states for the financial year 2021-22.

The estimates of government of India (GoI) suggested that the deficit would be to the tune of Rs. 1.56 lakh crore in 2021-22, without factoring in the impact due to Covid second wave. "Now due to Covid Wave-2 and lockdowns, the compensation will be much higher than what was earlier projected," Amit Mitra is quoted as saying in a leading business dailies report.

In March the finance ministry said that the amount totaling to Rs. 63000 crore is remaining to be paid to the states and UTs as GST compensation for FY21.

On the other hand, Manpreet Badal, Punjab finance minister said that some of the issues in relation to Covid need to be discussed on an urgent basis such as whether or not GST should be levied on hand sanitisers, oximeters, thermometer, PPE, gloves etc.

Meanwhile, the MSME sector is also demanding for GST Amnesty scheme with a cap on late fee or complete waiver.

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