GST Council Announces Reforms to Simplify Compliance and Refunds
· Business · Indian Express, Business Standard
The 57th GST Council meeting concluded on Thursday with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing a host of reforms aimed at improving compliance. The Council recommended automatic acceptance of routine changes to simplify registration, and reduced the acknowledgment period for tax refunds from 15 to 10 days. Significantly, 90 per cent of all refunds will be sanctioned within three days of acknowledgement, addressing a long-standing grievance for smaller firms. The Council has expanded input tax credit to include employee health and life insurance, and removed the power to arrest GST officers while raising the prosecution threshold from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore. No notices will be sent for disputes below the Rs 10,000 threshold, and all existing ones will be withdrawn.
Why it matters
The reforms directly ease cash flow pressure on businesses by speeding up refunds and simplifying registration, while raising the prosecution threshold and removing arrest powers aims to reduce harassment for compliant taxpayers. Small and medium enterprises stand to benefit most from quicker access to working capital.
Read the original report — Indian Express
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