45th GST Council meet to happen on September 17: Check out the key issues that will be addressed

The 45th GST Council Meet is set to be held on September 17 in Lucknow. According to a report, this is the first physical meeting of the GST Council after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The last GST Council meet was conducted on June 12 via video conference amid the raging second wave of pandemic. That meeting brought in reduced tax rates on most COVID-related supplies and also gave tax exemptions on medicines for treating Mucormycosis.

The report revealed that at the upcoming GST Council meeting, the Centre will address several compliance issues and notify a common electronic portal -- http://gst.gov.in.

The GST portal will then be utilised for registration, tax payment, IT returns, and computation and settlement of IGST.

In addition to that, the GST council meeting will help in facilitating the procedure for the Aadhaar authentication of existing GST users.

Besides that, the council will send out a clarification on the interest levied on wrongful/ineligible ITC claims, reported CNBC-TV18.

The report said, quoting sources that the GST Council would also consider the Group of Ministers' (GoM) report to allow special cess on pharma and electricity in Sikkim.

The GoM is likely to allow Sikkim to levy one percent cess on intra-state supply of pharmaceutical items for a period of three years and also look at a proposal to impose Rs 0.1/unit of electricity consumption or sale as it doesn’t come under the Goods and Services Tax.

The GoM has further urged the Centre to consider a special package of Rs 300 crore/annum as an aid to Sikkim till 2023 to help it recover losses made due to COVID-19.