45th GST Council Meeting:
The 45th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting was held.
Extension of Concessional GST Rates:
- The Council decided to extend the GST relief on several drugs related to Covid-19 treatment till December 2021.
Food Delivery Apps to Collect GST:
- Online food delivery aggregator firms such as Swiggy and Zomato will now be liable to pay GST and not the restaurant partners.
- Currently, online bills generated by food aggregators already have a tax component in it.
- The taxed amount is paid back to the restaurant partners who are then expected to pay this amount to the government.
Petrol and Diesel will not come under GST Regime:
- The council has decided not to bring petrol and diesel under the GST regime. States vehemently opposed the inclusion of the fuels while raising concerns on revenue buoyancy during the meet.
- If petrol and diesel come under the GST regime, prices will become mostly uniform across all states as the different excise and VAT rates that the Centre and the states impose would then be done away with.
- This would help bring down diesel and petrol prices greatly, which has touched new highs in the recent past.
GST on Fortified Rice Reduced:
- The GST rate on fortified rice kernels for schemes like integrated child development schemes has been recommended to be reduced from 18% to 5%.
