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Informist, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026

NEW DELHI - The GST Council is now likely to hold its next meeting on Oct. 7, nearly a month after its previously proposed date of Sept. 12, three finance ministry officials said Sunday. Officials attached to the council are likely to meet a day prior, as is customary. 

The date was postponed because it clashed with the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, the same weekend as the earlier meeting date, one official told Informist. 

Informist reported last month, citing a senior finance ministry official, that the GST Council is likely to ease the compliance burden on businesses to promote a simpler business environment. The council 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 last year, the GST Council had reduced the number of GST slabs and cut rates to spur consumption.

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

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

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta 

Edited by Saji George Titus

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