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Informist, Tuesday, Jun. 9, 2026

 

By Priyasmita Dutta

 

NEW DELHI – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will likely chair the next GST Council meeting "very soon", senior government officials said Tuesday. The meeting could likely be held by the end of June or in the first half of July, one of the officials cited above told Informist. "The council will likely meet before the Monsoon Session of Parliament meets; appropriate work has already begun," the official said. 

 

The last meeting of the GST Council was held on Sept. 3, when it took the landmark decision to reduce the number of goods and services tax slabs from four to three and announced a host of tax changes across a wide range of goods and services. According to the procedure and conduct of business regulations, the GST Council should meet at least once every three months.

 

According to two government officials, the two agenda items on the Council's table right now are to undertake "process reforms" under GST 2.0 and fix the issue of inverted duty structure in a few items. "Process reforms" will include issues related to the GST Appellate Tribunal, automated refunds, and simpler processes, one of the officials said. 

 

One of the officials also said that the Group of Ministers that was decided to be set up in December 2024, to consider allowing states to levy cess under GST to overcome financial distress following natural calamities, has been put on the back burner as the very states that sought the support have pulled out from it. "Consider it dissolved," the official said. 

 

In the 55th Council meeting in December 2024, the Council had decided to form a Group of Ministers to look into a cess for disaster-hit states after Andhra Pradesh suffered major natural calamities and struggled to support the economy's needs due to fiscal constraints. The then Andhra Pradesh finance minister Payyavula Keshav had proposed the move.   End

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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