Waiting for the GST Council meeting has got longer as the 57th meeting has now been postponed to October 7 from September 12. The meeting will be held in Delhi.
Confirming this development, government sources did not give a reason for the change, but it is understood that this has been done because of the BRICS Summit 2026, which will be held at Bharat Mandapam on the 12th and 13th of this month. The Delhi government has already declared September 11 a holiday for all government offices, autonomous bodies and public sector undertakings (PSUs) under itself in view of the BRICS Summit and arrangements connected with it. Educational institutions too will be closed.
The last GST Council meeting took place on September 3 last year. Rules say that there should be at least one meeting every quarter, but there have been delays and this time it is the longest wait, on account of various reasons including assembly polls in various States. The Council is chaired by the Finance Minister, while the Minister of State in the Finance Ministry and representative ministers of all the 28 States and 3 Union Territories with legislature are members.
Although the agenda of the meeting is yet to be finalised and circulated, this time the focus is likely to be more on compliance and ease of doing business. For example, one such likely proposal is finalising the guidelines to bring uniformity in documents that are to be submitted for faster processing of GST registration applications of businesses who pass on tax credit of over ₹2.5 lakh a month. The guidelines are also expected to prescribe norms for cancellation.
This will be another big reform after the simplified registration process was initiated last year based on a recommendation by the GST Council on September 3 last year and rolled out from November 1. It was mainly for small and low-risk businesses. Small and low-risk business applicants whom the GST system identifies based on data analysis, or those applicants who self-assess that their output tax liability does not exceed ₹2.5 lakh per month (inclusive of CGST, SGST/UTGST and IGST), can opt for the scheme. Nearly 65 per cent of the GST registrations are happening through this route. Now the effort is to bring a simplified mechanism for the remaining 35 per cent, who are basically big businesses.
There is a big issue about accumulated compensation cess. The matter is now pending in the Supreme Court. A petition filed by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) challenged the Centre’s notifications on transition or refund of accumulated GST compensation cess credit that industry associations have repeatedly estimated to be around ₹2,500 crore in value. Since the announcement of GST 2.0, auto retailers requested the government to hold significant, validly availed compensation cess balances in their electronic credit ledgers before the new GST regime kicked off on September 22, 2025.
Another proposal is likely to be about easing restrictions on input tax credit (ITC) for specified goods and services on which credit is currently not available. If recommended, it will benefit motor vehicles and certain other conveyances, food and beverages, outdoor catering, beauty treatment, health services, club memberships and certain travel-related benefits. ITC is also restricted on goods and services used for construction of immovable property, subject to the conditions prescribed under the law. This can also be removed.
Published on September 6, 2026
