Demand Notices, Interest, And Penalty Will Be Waived Off If Tax Is Paid By March 31, 2025: 53rd GST Council Meet

The 53rd GST Council meeting happened on June 22, 2024, in New Delhi, nearly eight months after the last one. The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, chaired the 53rd GST Council.

The council has proposed the insertion of Section 128A in CGST Act, to provide for conditional waiver of interest or penalty or both, relating to demands raised under Section 73, for FY 2017-18 to FY 2019-20.

Considering the difficulties faced by the taxpayers, during the initial years of implementation of GST, the GST Council recommended, waiving interest and penalties for demand notices issued under Section 73 of the CGST Act for the fiscal years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, in cases where the taxpayer pays the full amount of tax demanded in the notice upto 31.03.2025. The waiver does not cover demand of erroneous refunds. To implement this, the GST Council has recommended insertion of Section 128A in CGST Act, 2017.

Section 73 of the GST Act relates to the determination of tax not paid or short paid or erroneously refunded or input tax credit wrongly availed or utilised for any reason other than fraud or any wilful-misstatement or suppression of facts.