India Approves Decriminalisation Of Some GST Offenses
Offenses such as deliberate tampering of material evidence, failure to supply information and preventing any officer in his or her discharge of duties have been decriminalized.
(Bloomberg) -- India’s GST Council approved proposals to decriminalize some offenses in the tax law and doubled the monetary threshold for launching prosecution to 20 million rupees ($241,340).
Offenses such as deliberate tampering of material evidence, failure to supply information and preventing any officer in his or her discharge of duties have been decriminalized, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said Saturday.
The panel reduced the GST rate on ethyl alcohol supplied to refineries for blending with motor spirit to 5% from 18%, Malhotra said. The matter of tax evasions by companies selling certain tobacco products as well as on gaming were not taken up.
The amendments allowing unregistered suppliers and composition tax payers to make intra-state supply of goods via e-commerce portals was approved by the panel.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that a higher rate of 22% compensation cess applies to motor vehicle fulfilling all four conditions, namely, it is popularly known as sports utility vehicle, has an engine capacity exceeding 1500 cc, length exceeding 4 meters and a ground clearance of 17 centimeters or above.
Whether or not multi utility vehicles will fall into the above category will be looked into by the Council’s fitment committee that weighs in on GST rates, she said.
(Corrects to remove reference to number of meetings by council in third paragraph)
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