GST Council to discuss coronavirus impact on revenues, rationalising tax rates in its meet today

New Delhi: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to meet today to discuss the implications of COVID-19 outbreak on revenue collection in the country.

Seeking to correct the anomalies in the inverted duty structure, ease of doing business and lower compliance burden, the GST Council is also expected to rationalise rates of four key items — footwear, mobile phones, fertiliser and man-made fibres, among other goods, as reported by news agency IANS.

The GST council is also expected to discuss ways to elevate the revenue collection as the central government has already told the states that it does not have compensation funds for the states which have incurred losses in revenue due to the GST implementation.

Official sources as quoted by PTI also said that the council would also discuss the planned lottery scheme under GST, which is proposed to start from April 1. “The Council would discuss rationalisation of GST rate in sectors which see duty inversion, leading to high input credit refund claims,” an official told PTI.

Earlier, the committee of officers set up to find ways to elevate the revenue had suggested various measures to remove the anomalies such as inverted duty structures, which causes an estimated annual revenue loss of Rs 20,000 crore. Inverted duty refers to tax rates on inputs being higher than those levied on finished products.