New Delhi: Following dissent from some Opposition-ruled states, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on Wednesday adjourned its 33rd meeting and deferred a decision on rationalisation of tax rates on real estate and lottery till February 24.
The members of non-BJP ruled states have claimed that they need to be physically present for deciding on such crucial issues, but not through video conferencing (VC) as the Wednesday’s meeting took place through VC. However, members of Opposition-ruled states such as Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal and the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry served a notice to postpone the meeting.
The GST Council also decided to extend the deadline for filing summary sales return—GSTR-3B — for January by two days till February 22. “Considering the speed at which returns are getting filed, thousands of returns being filed every hour, the suggestion before the GST Council was to extend the deadline by two days for all states; and since some areas are facing disturbance, for Jammu & Kashmir it be extended till February 28. So we took that decision,” Jaitley said.
The GST Council was also slated to discuss the reports of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on under-construction housing property and lottery.
Briefing reporters after the Council meeting, Jaitley said the report of the GoM on real estate was considered, and since some states wanted a physical meeting before a final decision is taken on the issue, a final decision would be taken after a physical meeting on February 24. However, GST on lottery was not taken up for discussion by the Council on Wednesday.
