GST Council · 2021-09-17 · Lucknow

45th GST Council meeting: key decisions

The Lucknow meeting was the first physical meeting since the pandemic began. It extended Covid drug concessions to December 2021, cut rates on several medicines and corrected inverted duty structures on a range of goods, while deciding to implement footwear and textile corrections from January 2022. E-commerce operators were made liable for GST on restaurant and passenger transport services they facilitate. The Council decided it was not the right time to bring petroleum products into GST, and set up Groups of Ministers on rate rationalisation and on technology for compliance.

Chaired by Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister.

Rates

  • Extended concessional rates on Covid-19 drugs such as Amphotericin B, Tocilizumab, Remdesivir and Heparin to 31 December 2021, and extended 5 per cent to more Covid drugs.
  • Exempted IGST on Zolgensma and Viltepso imported for personal use and cut GST on Keytruda, fortified rice kernels and biodiesel for blending to 5 per cent.
  • Raised rates on items such as metal ores, renewable energy devices, paper packaging, pens and railway goods to correct inverted duties.
  • Decided to implement the correction of inverted duty in footwear and textiles from 1 January 2022.
  • Made e-commerce operators liable to pay GST on restaurant services and passenger transport by motor vehicles supplied through them, from 1 January 2022.

Other

  • Concluded, on the Kerala High Court's direction, that it was not appropriate at that stage to bring specified petroleum products into GST.
  • Set up Groups of Ministers on rate rationalisation and inverted duties, and on using technology to improve compliance.

Law and procedure

  • Recommended a retrospective amendment so that interest applies only to ineligible credit availed and utilised, at 18 per cent, from 1 July 2017.

Refunds

  • Required Aadhaar authentication for refund claims and paying refunds only into bank accounts linked to the same PAN.

Compliance and returns

  • Relaxed ITC-04 filing to half-yearly above Rs. 5 crore turnover and annually otherwise, and barred GSTR-1 filing where the previous month's GSTR-3B was not filed, from 1 January 2022.

Official documents

← 44th meetingAll meetings46th meeting →

gstapproval.com is a private firm of GST professionals, not a government body. These are our plain-language summaries of official documents; always rely on the official text linked on each page.

Need help applying this to your business?

Call +91 63677 44602 or WhatsApp us. We handle GST work end to end, without you visiting the department.