The all-powerful GST Council Friday extended the tenure of the anti-profiteering authority by two years and approved imposing a penalty of up to 10 per cent on entities not passing on benefits of GST rate cuts to consumers. 

Also, it extended the date for filing annual returns under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime by two months to August 30, he said, adding the one-form new GST return filing system will be applicable from January 1, 2020.

The Council, which is headed by the Union Finance Minister and comprises representatives of all states and UTs, also approved an electronic invoicing system and e-ticketing in multiplexes.

Briefing reporters after the 35th meeting of the Council, Revenue Secretary A B Pandey said it has been decided to allow the use of Aadhaar by businesses to register with GST-Network.

He further said: “GST Council has approved several changes which were made during last few months. For example, GST registration limit threshold limit was raised from Rs 20 Lakh to Rs 40 Lakh. Earlier it was done through notification, now appropriate changes have been made in the laws.

Dealers with turnover up to Rs 5 Cr will be filing quarterly and those above Rs 5 Cr will be filing monthly returns. Composition scheme for service providers, decision which was taken in GST Council few months back and done through a notification will be made a part of law.”

Pandey said the proposal to reduce GST rate on EVs to 5 per cent from the current 12 per cent and that on electric charger to 12 per cent from 18 per cent to the fitment committee for fine tuning.

The tenure of National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) has been extended by two years till November 30, 2021.

Soon after the GST was rolled out from July 1, 2017, the government had approved setting up the NAA for two years to deal with complaints by consumers against companies for not passing on GST rate cut benefits.

The NAA came into existence on November 30, 2017, after its Chairman B N Sharma assumed charge. So far, the NAA has passed 67 orders in various cases and complaints still keep coming in. 

With inputs from agencies