The 46th GST Council Meeting was held on 31st December 2021 in New Delhi at 11.00 am. It was a physical meeting and considering the COVID restrictions, not more than 2 representative members from each state were requested to join. The 46th GST Council Meeting was chaired by Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman and was accompanied by other council members of states.
The Finance Minister described it as an ‘emergency meeting’ held to discuss and defer the rates on textile after receiving several triggers from different states. The final trigger was a letter from the Finance Minister of Gujarat. Only one decision has been taken in the 46th GST Council Meeting regarding the deferment of the verdict on textile rates in the 45th GST Council Meeting.
Highlight:
The GST Council has recommended deferring the decision to change the rates in textiles recommended in the 45th GST Council meeting. Consequently, the existing GST rates in the textile sector would continue beyond 1st January, 2022.
The council has decided to retain the status quo on the rate at which Textiles are taxed. So, GST Rate for textiles will remain at 5% for now. However, the Finance Minister also stated that textiles will once again go under the rate rationalisation for review along with other items which also need to be reviewed for Inverted Duty Structure correction.
The rate rationalisation committee will be required to submit a report once again to the GST Council which will have textile too. The next council meeting will be held in February towards the end or in March 2022.
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46th GST Council Meeting – Agenda
As per the reports, the agenda for the meeting is to discuss the correction of the inverted duty structure in certain goods. Also, there are talks that the council might defer the hike on GST rates on textiles and footwear which was announced via the 45th GST Council Meeting. The recent notification that suggested 5% GST to be charged to e-commerce service providers may also get extended in order to provide them some time to make changes to their software and adapt to the update.
Another big agenda for the 46th GST Council Meeting can be the GST rate Tax Slabs. Currently, GST is a four-tier slab structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28%. Basic/Essential goods are categorized in the exempted list or have been put under the lowest tax slab whereas, on the highest slab, tax is levied on luxury and demerit goods. There are requests to merge the 12 and 18% slabs while removing certain goods from exempted category. This is required to maintain adequate balance.
We will update the final highlights of the 46th GST Council Meeting here. Stay Tuned!
You can find the highlights to the past GST council meetings here –
44th GST Council Meeting
43rd GST Council Meeting
42nd GST Council Meeting
41st GST Council Meeting
40th GST Council Meeting
