NEW DELHI: The GST Council's 48th  meeting was held under the leadership of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was held in New Delhi on Saturday, December 17, 2022.

"In this GST Council meeting, there has not been any tax rise on any item," Ms. Sitharaman declared after the meeting. Every action taken has been to provide clarifications in cases where there is a predominance of ambiguous interpretations.
The majority of all that has been discussed is the fitment committee’s recommendations were brought to the Council on many items where there is confusion of rates. 

In the case of SUVs, we have explaiend that the higher rate of 22 percent compensation cess is applicable to motor vehicles fulfilling 4 conditions - commonly known as an SUV and has an engine capacity of 1500 cc, length beyond 4,000 mm and ground clearance of 170 mm.”

"However, there was a request to add to this MUVs even while we were bringing in this explanation. The Fitment Committee will investigate whether anything needs to be added on to this 22% cess rate, as the Council has decided to move through with this clarification. Some people questioned whether sedans are also included in this, which led to the entire discussion, said Ms. Sitharaman.

The majority of State ministers had other commitments, thus the meeting had to finish before 1:30 p.m. This prevented discussion of about seven agenda items, including the GoM report on the establishment of GST Appellate Tribunals. Due to time constraints, it was unable to debate taxes on cigarettes and gutkha, said the Finance Minister.

The next GST Council meeting, which Ms. Sitharaman expressed hope that being attended in person, will address these outstanding issues. She said, "We are trying to take up the GST Tribunal issue as soon as feasible.

GST Council agrees to decriminalise some offences; threshold of launching prosecution doubled to Rs, 2 crore, said Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra. The Revenue Secretary also said “Tax rate on husk of pulses reduced to nil from 5%.”

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