The GST Council had in September 2018 set up the seven-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to consider a cess for Kerala flood rehabilitation.
Two ministerial panels under the GST Council will meet on January 6 to decide on hiking the exemption of threshold limit for MSMEs and feasibility of levying calamity cess under the new indirect tax regime, officials said.
The six-member GoM on MSME, headed by Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla, would deliberate on the problems faced by MSMEs under GST and scope for hiking exemption threshold for such units.
Currently, businesses with an annual aggregate turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh are exempt from the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The other members of the MSME GoM, which was constituted in August 2018, are Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Kerala Finance Minister (FM) Thomas Isaac and Punjab Finance Minister (FM) Manpreet Singh Badal.
Another Group of ministers, headed by Sushil Modi, on levy of calamity cess under GST too is scheduled to meet on 6th January 2019, the officials added.
The GST Council, the highest decision-making body of the new indirect tax regime, had in September 2018 set up the seven-member Group of ministers to consider a cess for Kerala flood rehabilitation.
Apart from Himanta Biswa Sharma, Thomas Isaac and Manpreet Singh Badal, the other members of the calamity cess Group of Minister include Odisha Finance Minister (FM) Sashi Bhusan Behera, Maharashtra Finance Minister (FM) Sudhir Murgantiwar and Uttarakhand Finance Minister (FM) Prakash Pant.
The decisions of the two ministerial panels would be placed before the GST Council in their next meeting to be held on 10th January 2019.
The GST council, among other things, would also discuss lowering GST rate on under-construction flats and houses to 5% from 12%.
GST Council would also consider a composition scheme for small suppliers and rationalization of tax rates on lottery. Currently, state-organized lottery attracts 12% GST, while state-authorized lottery attracts 28%.
