The 49th Meeting of GST Council was held under the Chairpersonship of Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on 18th February 2023. The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs. The GST Council has, inter-alia, made the following recommendations relating to GST compensation, GST Appellate Tribunal, approval of the Report of GoM on Capacity Based Taxation and Special Composition Scheme in certain Sectors, recommendations relating to rates on some goods and other measures for facilitation of trade:

1. GST Compensation

The GST Council has decided to clear the pending GST compensation of Rs. 16,982 crore for June, 2022. As no amount was available in the GST compensation Fund, Centre decided to release this amount from its own resources and the same will be recouped from the future compensation Cess collection. With this release, Centre cleared the entire provisionally admissible compensation due for five years as envisaged in the GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017. In addition, Centre would also clear the admissible final GST compensation to those States who have provided the revenue figures as certified by the Accountant General of the States. The details of GST compensation released to each states for the last five years as given below (Table -1)