49th GST Council Meeting Underway At Vigyan Bhawan

The 49th GST Council meeting is also scheduled to set up appellate tribunals & systems to control & monitor tax evasion in pan masala & gutkha businesses.

Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, is officiating over the meeting. Following the release of the union budget earlier this month, the GST Council is holding its 49th meeting.

The meeting is being attended by the Union Finance Minister, the Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, as well as the Finance Ministers of the States and UTs (with legislatures).

The goods and services tax (GST) council is an apex member body for amending, resolving, or obtaining any law or regulation. 

All of the Indian states’ finance ministers support Nirmala Sitharaman, the council’s leader.

The 48th and last meeting of the GST Council took place on December 22, 2022. The meeting was presided over by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The topic of establishing appeal tribunals and other procedures to prevent tax evasion in pan masala and gutkha is anticipated to come up during the GST Council meeting today (on 18th February).

The assessment of the panel of ministers on online gambling and casinos may not be considered at the GST Council meeting, which will be presided over by Nirmala Sitharaman and would also include her state equivalents.

On February 18, the 49th GST Council meeting will focus on those subjects, which were not covered in the group’s most recent meeting on December 17, 2022. 

The Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by the finance minister of Odisha, Niranjan Pujari, would be discussing a report on preventing tax evasion by the pan masala and gutkha businesses.

In July of last year, Dushyant Chautala, the deputy chief minister of Haryana, presided over the GoM on Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunals. 

The GoM stipulates that the tribunals must consist of a president who is a retired judge from the Supreme Court, two judges from the Center, one judge from each state, and one technical member.

It is uncertain that the panel’s findings on online gaming, which was chaired by Conrad Sangma, chief minister of Meghalaya, will be reviewed. The report must be sent to the states and delivered to the Union finance minister before the Council can examine it.

The GoM had decided on a 28 percent GST at its most recent meeting in November. There was disagreement over whether the tax should be applied to just the fees the portal charges or to the total transaction, including the bet amount, received from participants, therefore the GoM opted to forward all recommendations to the GST Council for a final decision.

Now, there is an 18 percent Tax on online gaming. Taxes levied by online gambling portals are based on gross gaming revenue and apply to the fees they collect.

Also, the person who was previously quoted does not anticipate that this meeting would cover a cess on multi-utility vehicles. The 22% cess for SUVs matching four standards was made clear at the 48th GST Council meeting.

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The GST Council expressed interest in incorporating MUVs in the cess, per the Nirmala Sitharaman throughout a post-meeting press conference in December, but the topic has been forwarded to the fitment committee.