GST council allows Aadhaar for registration, defers decision on EVs

The GST council Friday extended the tenure of the anti-profiteering authority by two years and imposed a penalty of up to 10 per cent on businesses not passing on benefits of rate cuts to consumers.

Businesses will be allowed to use Aadhaar for registering themselves on the GST portal, said Revenue Secretary A B Pandey at a press briefing in Delhi after the 35th meeting of the council

The council extended the date for filing annual returns under the GST regime by two months to August 30. The one-form new GST return filing system will be applicable from January 1, 2020.

Pandey said a proposal to reduce GST rate on electronic vehicles to 5 per cent from the current 12 per cent and that on electric chargers 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 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. 

The council, which is headed by the Union Finance Minister and comprises representatives of all states and UTs, made it mandatory for multiplexes to issue electronic tickets.