18th GST Council Meeting: Important Updates

The 18th GST Council Meeting was held a couple of hours before the mega launch of GST and made some important announcements, providing huge relief to the farmers. The meeting called to grant a vote of thanks without any formal agenda took up the cause of the farmers and reduced the reduced the tax rate on fertilizer to 5 percent from previously decided 12 percent.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, clarified that the decision to reduce the tax rate on fertilizer was taken because of apprehensions that price of the crop nutrient may go up.  Adding up to the relief of the farmers, the council also reduced the tax rate from 28 percent earlier to 18 percent, on select parts of tractors. Mr. Jaitley also said that the council has also approved the additional set of rules but he did not elaborate on the same.

A number of issues have been decided in the 18 GST Council meetings that range from legislative drafts to rules, deciding over the rate of tax, anti-profiteering and much more. The next three sessions of the GST Council will be held on the first Saturdays of the months starting from August. GST was then launched in a gala ceremony at midnight, marking the start of a new era.

Input Source: PTI