GST Council to hold virtual meet today

New Delhi, Dec 17: After a gap of nearly six months, the meeting of GST Council, which is headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, would be held on Saturday through video conferencing, it was announced on Friday.

“The 48th Meeting of the GST Council will be held on 17th December, 2022 by video conference,” the Finance Ministry tweeted on Friday.

The previous meeting of the GST council was held in Chandigarh between June 28 and 29 this year.

Last month, former West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra had exhorted the Union Finance Ministry to “urgently” convene a meeting of the GST Council, saying that it had not met for almost six months.

Mitra, who is the principal chief advisor to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a letter to Sitharaman, had said that as per rules of conduct, the GST council should meet every quarter in a financial year.

In its previous meeting, the Council had raised GST on various items like LED lamps, solar water heaters etc. It had also hiked GST from 12 per cent to 18 per cent on tetra packs.

The rate changes recommended by the GST Council had become effective on July 18, 2022.

Meanwhile, the panel of state ministers set up by the GST council to look into taxation of online gaming and casinos, had on Thursday submitted its report to Sitharaman.

The GST council is likely to take up the report in Saturday’s meeting.

The panel headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, had met in November and agreed on a 28 per cent GST on online gaming, casinos, and horse racing.