At a press conference after the 48th council meeting, Sitharaman said, “There was no tax increase on any item at this council meeting. Clarifications have only been issued in cases where the ambiguity of interpretation remains.” The Treasury Secretary added that one such area is SUVs, where it has been clarified that a higher compensation deduction of 22% applies to motor vehicles meeting all four conditions, namely popularly referred to as an SUV and have a displacement of more than 1,500 ccm, a length of more than 4,000 mm and a ground clearance of 170 mm or more.

The GST Council has recommended raising the minimum tax amount for initiating a prosecution under the GST from ₹1 crore to ₹2 crore, with the exception of the offense of issuing invoices without supply of goods or services or both. The other recommendations include reducing the amount of compounding from the current 50% to 150% of the tax amount to the range of 25% to 100% and decriminalizing certain offenses of obstructing or preventing an official from performing his or her duties, willful mitigation of material evidence and default to deliver the information.

“The GST Council decriminalizes three types of offences, including preventing an officer from performing his or her duties. The threshold for initiating a prosecution was also doubled to ₹ crore. This change should help simplify doing business,” said Mahesh Jaising, Partner, Head – Indirect Taxes, Deloitte India.