GST Council meet: Relief package likely for small businesses, exporters

New Delhi: A crucial meeting of the GST Council was underway here on Friday to decide on providing some relief to exporters in terms of faster refunds as well as compliance.

Chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the 22nd meeting of the GST Council was being attended by finance ministers of states and GST Secretariat officials.

The full fledged meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is also likely to assess the improvements in the GST Network's functioning.

The Group of Ministers, under Sushil Modi, set up to look into GSTN glitches will also brief the Council on the portal's functioning, PTI reported quoting officials in the ministry

With over 33 lakh businesses filing the final GSTR-1 return, the GoM has tasked GSTN to send reminder text messages to the remaining 20 lakh businesses which are yet to submit the tax forms.

The last date for filing of final sales returns for July in GSTR-1 form is October 10, while the date for uploading of purchase returns in GSTR-2 is October 31.

The final GSTR-3, matching GSTR-1 and 2, is to be filed by November 10.

The GoM in its meeting on Wednesday has asked GSTN and Infosys to brace up for handling the rush of last-minute filers.

Besides, the committee set up under Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on issues faced by exporters, is likely to submit its preliminary report to the Council today.

Based on that the Council is likely to recommend some relaxation for exporters so that their working capital which is locked up in refunds is released, officials said.

Also, the apex indirect tax body CBEC will inform the Council that it is ready to release Integrated GST (IGST) refunds to exporters from October 10.

In a meeting with the Revenue Secretary last month, exporters had said that an estimated Rs 65,000 crore is locked up in GST refunds.

Also officials said that easy compliance for exporters, like quarterly filing of returns instead of monthly filing, is likely to be discussed by the Council.

The government has already allowed exporters to furnish Letter of Undertaking (LUT) instead of bonds at the time of exports, which will ease the compliance burden and stop locking up of capital.