More Stories

Informist, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026

 

--Fin min official: GST Council to hold 57th meet Sept 12 in New Delhi

 

NEW DELHI – The GST Council is likely to hold its 57th meeting in New Delhi on Sept. 12, according to a finance ministry official. The officers attached to the council are likely to meet a day prior, as is the usual practice, on Sept. 11. The meetings will begin at 1100 IST.

 

Informist had reported Thursday, quoting a senior finance ministry official, that the GST Council is likely to ease the compliance burden on businesses to promote a simpler business environment. It will particularly focus on streamlining processes for smaller businesses, which struggle to comply with the multiple requirements under the goods and services tax regime, the official said.

 

The council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is mandated to meet once every three months, but this will be its first meeting in over a year. At its 56th meeting in September 2025, the GST Council had reduced the number of GST slabs and cut rates to spur consumption.

 

Even after the gap, the council is likely to focus on process reforms, as announced by Sitharaman last year. Simpler processes will make it easier for smaller businesses to meet compliance requirements and fulfil registration requirements. This will help widen the GST base, the senior official had said Thursday.

 

Currently, discrepancies between e-waybill data and data submitted by businesses in GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B returns, such as differences in invoice value and item quantity, trigger automated notices from the department, according to the official. Officials in the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs are working on these issues, which the GST Council is likely to take up at its next meeting.

 

The Centre and state governments are also working on uniform guidelines to facilitate GST registration for businesses with monthly output tax liability exceeding INR 250,000. The proposal will be placed before the GST Council, CBIC Member Sanjay Mangal had said last week. Tax officers are also discussing automation of GST registration cancellation and streamlining the grounds on which a GST officer can cancel the registration of a business, he added. The council may also look at ways to weed out fake claims.

 

Last year, the GST Council had approved a simplified GST registration scheme for small and low-risk businesses, which was rolled out on Nov. 1. These applicants have monthly output tax credit of less than INR 250,000. Simplifying registration for large businesses that collect tax credit over INR 250,000 per month will help widen the tax base significantly, according to the senior finance ministry official. As of Jun. 30, there were 16.71 million active GST taxpayers, with 3.9 million migrating from the pre-GST era.  End

 

US$1 = INR 95.37

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Written by Aaryan Khanna

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.