GST Council Meet: The 32nd meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is scheduled to take place in the national capital today. Ahead of the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday attended a public gathering and said that he has urged the GST Council to increase the threshold for exemption from levy’s registration from Rs 20 lakh per annum turnover to a massive Rs 75 lakh. During his speech, PM Modi stated that he has proposed to club the houses meant for the middle class in 5 per cent slab as the Council has all the state government on board.

According to reports, the meeting is likely to discuss the recommendations of the two ministerial panels among other issues. The ministerial panel under the minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla has deliberated on giving relief to MSEMs under the GST and the exemption threshold for such businesses.

The group of ministers (GoM) also discussed whether to levy a flat GST of Rs 5,000 per annum for businesses with turnover between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 60 lakh and above Rs 10,000 a year for those with turnover between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 75 lakh. This benefit was suggested only for business-to-consumer (B2C) entities and not business-to-business (B2B) entities.

With this proposal, the government aims to help small-medium businesses in the country. PM Modi also said that the Central government is taking various steps to help the SME sector, including easing of credit flow. “We are formulating policies so that they do not face cash flow squeeze and that they get easy credit from banks, while the environmental and other clearances come faster,” he said.

PM also stated that GST norms are being significantly simplified on the basis of complaints and suggestions given by traders and businesses. “But there are people who are creating doubts through misinformation that the GST is an additional tax, apart from existing taxes. This is completely wrong. Earlier, taxes were hidden and clubbed under different heads in the slab ranging from 20 to 40 per cent, which had all been subsumed under the GST,” PM Modi added.

Headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, GST Council is the highest decision-making body of the new indirect tax system that came into effect from July 1, 2017.