Government has introduced various sectoral revival amendments and changes for making GST simpler and easier.

The most awaited GST Council’s 37th meet held in Goa under the Chairmanship of FinMin Nirmala Sitharaman concluded with the following decisions with respect to rates of goods effective from 1st October, 2019.

GST on Goods

(A) Changes in rates of certain Goods

Sr no.	Name of Item	Old Rate	New Rate
1	Slide Fasteners	18%	12%
2	Marine Fuel	12%	5%
3	Wet Grinders (Stone as a grinder)	12%	5%
4	Dried Tamraind	5%	Nil
5	Plates and Cups (Leaves/.flowers/bark)	5%	Nil
6	Polished semi- precious stones	3%	0.25%
7	All specified goods for petroleum operations undertaken under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy (HELP)	Applicable rate	5%
8	imports of specified defence goods not being manufactured indigenously (upto 2024)	Applicable rate	Nil
9	supply of goods and services to FIFA and other specified persons for organizing the Under-17 Women’s Football World Cup in India.	Applicable rate	Nil
10	supply of goods and services to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for specified projects in India.	Applicable rate	Nil
11	goods, falling under chapter 86 of tariff like railway wagons, coaches, rolling stock (without refund of accumulated ITC)	5%	12%
12	Caffeinated Beverages	18%	28%+12% cess
13	Polypropylene/Polyethylene Woven and Non- Woven Bags and sacks, whether or not laminated (for packing)	5%/12%/18%	12%

(B) Change in rates for certain specific period:

Sr. No	Name of Item	Old Rate	New Rate	Period
1	Fishmeal	Interpretation issue w.r.t taxability. Collected tax to be deposited	Nil	01.07.17 to 30.09.19
2	pulley, wheels and other parts (falling under Heading 8483) and used as parts of agricultural machinery.	28%	12%	01.07.2017 to 31.12.2018

Apart form change in rates, government taking into account state if economy and liquidity crunch in industries has introduced following measures (effective from 1st October 2019)

(C) For the jewellery industry, exemption in following from GST:   

1. Import on Silver/Platinum by specified nominated agencies
2. Supply of Silver/Platinum by specified nominated agency to exporters for exports of Jewellery,
3. Inclusion of Diamond India Limited (DIL) in the list of nominated agencies eligible for IGST exemption on imports of Gold/ Silver/Platinum so as to supply at Nil GST to Jewellery exporters.

(D) Amendments for Automotive Industry:

• Reduction in compensation cess for Passenger vehicles (Engine capacity upto 1500 cc in diesel / 1200 cc in petrol) and length upto 4000mm for carrying more than 10 persons but upto 13 persons to 1% for petrol and 3% for diesel vehicle from existing 15%.
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(D) Clarifications as regards applicability of GST rate in respect of certain goods recommended by GST Council which inter-alia includes: 

• Mere heating of leguminous vegetables (gram/lentil) for removing moisture, or to soften and puff it or removing the skin only would be classified under HS code 0713 and hence Nil GST
• All “mechanical sprayers” falling under HS Code 8424 would attract 12% GST.
• Parts like Solar Evacuation tubes for solar power based devices like solar water heater, solar steam, generation systems, would be eligible to 5% GST rate.
• Exclusive parts and accessories suitable for use solely or principally with a medical device (HSN heading 9018, 9019, 9021 or 9022) to attract GST rate of 12%.
• Almond milk (HS code 22029990) to attract GST rate of 18%.
• No IGST on Imported stores for Navy

GST on Services

(A) Changes in Rates:

Sr no.	Industry	Name of Item	Old Rate	New Rate
1	Hotels	hotel accommodation service Room rent Rs.1,001 to 7,500	18%	12%
2		hotel accommodation service Room rent above Rs. 7,500	28%	18%
3		outdoor catering services other than in premises having daily tariff of unit of accommodation of Rs 7501	18%	5% w/o ITC
4	Diamond Industry	supply of job work services in relation to diamonds	5%	1.5%
5		supply of machine job work such as in engineering industry, except supply of job work in relation to bus body building	18%	12%
6	Warehousing	storage or warehousing of cereals, pulses, fruits, nuts and vegetables, spices, copra, sugarcane, jaggery, raw vegetable fibres such as cotton, flax, jute etc., indigo, unmanufactured tobacco, betel leaves, tendu leaves, rice, coffee and tea.	18%	Nil
7	Transportation	Export freight by air or sea by another year 30.09.2020.	Nil	Nil
8	Insurance	BANGLA SHASYA BIMA” (BSB) crop insurance scheme of West Bengal Government	18%	Exempt
9		Life insurance business provided or agreed to be provided by the Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (under Ministry of Home Affairs) Group Insurance Funds to their members under the respective Group Insurance Schemes of these Central Armed Paramilitary forces.	18%	Exempt

(B) Amendments for Export promotion:

1. To exempt services provided by an intermediary to a supplier of goods or recipient of goods when both the supplier and recipient are located outside the taxable territory.
2. Place of supply of specified R&D services like Integrated discovery and development, Evaluation of the efficacy of new chemical/ biological entities in animal models of disease/ Evaluation of biological activity of novel chemical/ biological entities in in-vitro assays,Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics of new chemical entities/ Safety Assessment/ Toxicology,Stability Studies/ Bio Equivalence and Bio Availability Studies, Clinical trials,Bio analytical studies) provided by Indian pharma companies to foreign service recipients, will be place of effective use and enjoyment of a service i.e. location of the service recipient. 
3. Place of supply of chip design software R&D services provided by Indian companies to foreign clients by using sample test kits in India is the location of the service recipient

Other Amendments:

Goods

1. No composition scheme for Aerated drink manufacturers
2. Option to pay GST @ 18% on transaction value at the time of disposal of specified goods for petroleum operations (on which concessional GST rate of 5% was paid at the time of original supply). However, such goods need to be certified by Director General Hydrocarbon(DGH) as non-serviceable.
3. Restriction on refund of compensation cess on tobacco products (in case of inverted duty structure)
4. Prescribing modalities for allowing concessions on spare parts imported temporarily by foreign airlines for repair of their aircraft, while in India in transit in terms of the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation.

Services

1. VIII.Option to registered authors to pay GST on royalty charged from publishers under forward charge and comply with regular GST norms.
2. No GST on grant of liquor licence by State Governments against payment of license fee
3. No Get on services related to FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup 2020
4. GST on securities lending service payable under reverse charge mechanism (RCM) at the merit rate of 18%. However, GST on such services for period prior to RCM period shall be paid on forward charge basis. 
5. IGST shall be payable on supply of services of security lending, however where CGST/SGST/UTGST have been paid, no further liability arises.
6. XIII.Reverse charge to suppliers paying GST @ 5% on vehicles taken on rent from registered person (other than body corporate) for services provided to body corporate.

Note: It is to be noted that official notifications in this regard will be issued by CBIC.

Other Changes relating to Law and Procedure:

1. Filing of annual returns for MSMEs for FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 :
2. No FORM GSTR-9A for Composition Taxpayers for the said tax periods
3. Option to file FORM GSTR-9 taxpayers have aggregate turnover up to Rs. 2 crores

1. Committee of Officers to be constituted to examine the simplification of Forms for Annual Return and reconciliation statement.
2. Extension of last date for filing appeals against orders of Appellate Authority before the GST Appellate Tribunal due to non-functionality of Appellate Tribunals.
3. No ITC by the recipients where details of outward supplies are not furnished by the suppliers in a timely manner
4. New return system now to be introduced from April, 2020. Due date for furnishing return in FORM GSTR-3B and FORM GSTR-1 for the period October, 2019 - March, 2020 to be specified
5. Issuance of circulars for uniformity in application of law across all jurisdictions:
   • Procedure to claim refund in FORM GST RFD-01A subsequent to favourable order in appeal or any other forum;
   • Eligibility to file a refund application in FORM GST RFD-01A for a period and category under which a NIL refund application has already been filed; and
   • Clarification regarding supply of Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS services) being made on own account or as intermediary.
6. Circular No.105/24/2019-GST dated 28.06.2019, issued in respect of post-sales discount. to be ab-initio
7. Integrated refund system with disbursal by single authority to be introduced from 24th September, 2019.
8. Linking of Aadhar with registration of taxpayers under GST and examine the possibility of making Aadhar mandatory for claiming refunds.
9. In order to tackle the menace of fake invoices and fraudulent refunds, in principle decision to prescribe reasonable restrictions on passing of credit by risky taxpayers including risky new taxpayers.

Trust above mentioned analysis was beneficial!