The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley Chaired the 25^th Meeting of the GST Council in New Delhi today. The following Policy Changes have been recommended by the GST Council in its 25^th meeting held today:

1. The late fee payable by any registered person for failure to furnish FORM GSTR-1 (supply details), FORM GSTR-5 (Non-resident taxable person) or FORM GSTR-5A (OIDAR) is being reduced to fifty rupees per day and shall be twenty rupees per day for NIL filers. The late fee payable for failure to furnish FORM GSTR-6 (Input Service Distributor) shall be fifty rupees per day.
2. Taxable persons who have obtained voluntary registration will now be permitted to apply for cancellation of registration even before the expiry of one year from the effective date of registration.
3. For migrated taxpayers, the last date for filing FORM GST REG-29 for cancellation of registration is being extended by further three months till 31^st March, 2018.
4. The facility for generation, modification and cancellation of e-way bills is being provided on trial basis on the portal ewaybill.nic.in. Once fully operational, the e-way bill system will start functioning on the portal ewaybillgst.gov.in
5. Certain modifications are being made to the e-way bill rules which are to be notified nationwide for inter-State movement with effect from 01.02.2018 and for intra-State movement with effect from a date to be announced separately by each State but not later than 01.06.2018.
6. The report and recommendations submitted by the Committee on Handicrafts were also accepted by the GST Council.

Late fee reduction for GST return filings and procedural relaxations announced, plus trial e-way bill rollout and rule amendments. Reductions and procedural relaxations in GST compliance were recommended, focusing on late fee reductions for specific return forms, permission for voluntarily registered persons to apply for cancellation before completing one year, and an extension of the deadline for migrated taxpayers to file cancellation. A trial e-way bill facility for generation, modification and cancellation was authorised with planned migration to a permanent portal, and e-way bill rule amendments were approved for phased nationwide implementation. The Council also accepted the Committee on Handicrafts report and recommendations.