Minutes of the 8th CST Council Meeting held on 3-4 January 2017

GST Council meeting addressed sectoral compliance, IGST drafting changes, compensation fund mechanics and cross-empowerment deferral.

Industry submissions highlighted severe real-time place-of-supply and ITC pooling challenges across banking, telecom, IT/ITeS, civil aviation, railways and exporters, urging centralized registration, IGST-based or end-of-month allocation mechanisms, simplified valuation and place-of-supply rules, and sector-specific rate and transitional relief. The Council approved the IGST draft subject to further legal consideration of the definition of 'State' (territorial waters), referral of certain supply and ITC provisions to the Law Committee, amendment of IGST rate cap to 40%, apportionment of unallocated IGST to States by SGST share, and deferred cross-empowerment design for a future meeting. The Compensation Law was revised to secure bi-monthly payments for five years, funding mechanisms and distribution of unutilized balances.