Nirmala Sitharaman chairs 46th GST Council Meeting: GST Council to retain status quo on GST rate on textile to 5% 

46th GST Council Meeting: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 46th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council in the national capital on December 31, 2021. The GST Council has decided to retain the status quo on GST rate on textile to 5% and not raise it to 12%, informed the finance minister while addressing the press conference after the conclusion of the meeting.

The GST Council meeting has decided to retain the status quo on GST rate on textile to 5% and not raise it to 12%. The issue of GST rate on textile will be sent to the tax rate rationalization committee which will submit its report by February: FM Nirmala Sitharaman pic.twitter.com/DCjIvNTp2Z

— ANI (@ANI) December 31, 2021

The 46th GST Council meeting was called under emergency provisions. Finance Minister informed that it was a brief agenda and had only one agenda. The meeting was triggered by a letter that written to the Finance Minister by the finance minister of Gujarat, requesting for reconsideration of the September 2021 decision taken in the Council.

Speaking on rate rationalisation, Finance Minister said that there is already a committee that looks at rate rationalisation and it has been decided that textile will again be put to the committee for review along with other items. The tax rate rationalization committee will submit its report by February. After that the GST council wil have a meeting where the committee's report on every item, including textile, will be discussed.

Finance Minister of #Gujarat had requested for reconsideration of Sep 2021 GST Council decision

The decision (45th GST Council) was taken in the process of correcting the inversion in the tax structure

- FM @nsitharaman @FinMinIndia @nsitharamanoffc

— PIB in Maharashtra 🇮🇳 (@PIBMumbai) December 31, 2021

This meeting is significant as it comes ahead of the Union Budget presentation, which will be presented in the Parliament on February 1, 2022.

The GST Council meeting was attended by finance ministers of States and Union Territories and Union ministers of state in the Ministry of Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad along with other senior officials of the Finance Ministry. The meeting was held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

45th GST council meeting

During the 45th GST Council meeting, the council decided that the concessional GST rates, which were announced for COVID-19 related medicines till September 30 earlier, will be extended till December 31, 2021. The extension was only given for medicines that were given exemption earlier and not medical equipment. The council also exempted life-saving drugs that are not connected with COVID-19 but are very expensive from GST taxation. 

Other key decisions -

The GST rate on cancer-related drugs was reduced from earlier 12 percent to 5 percent.

•The GST rate on retro-fitment kits for vehicles used by Divyang/ Persons with Disabilities was reduced to 5 percent.

•The GST rate on fortified rice kernels was reduced from 18 percent to 5 percent. 

•The GST rate on biodiesel was also been reduced from 12 percent to 5 percent. 

Read more: 45th GST Council meeting