The GST Council in its 31^st meeting held today at New Delhi gave in principle approval to the following amendments in the GST Acts:

1. Creation of a Centralised Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (AAAR) to deal withcases of conflicting decisions by two or more State Appellate Advance Ruling Authorities on the same issue.
2. Amendment of section 50 of the CGST Act to provide that interest should be charged only on the net tax liability of the taxpayer, after taking into account the admissible input tax credit, i.e. interest would be leviable only on the amount payable through the electronic cash ledger.

The above recommendations of the Council will be made effective only after the necessary amendments in the GST Acts are carried out.

Centralised Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling proposed; interest to be charged only on net tax liability. Creation of a Centralised Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling is proposed to address conflicting appellate advance ruling decisions. An amendment is proposed to make interest leviable only on the net tax liability after accounting for admissible input tax credit, such that interest applies only to amounts payable through the electronic cash ledger. Both proposals are approved in principle and await statutory amendment.