In its 42nd meeting, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has extended the levy of compensation cess beyond the transition period of five years for such period as may be required to meet the revenue gap. The Centre also decided to increase the shortfall amount to Rs 1.10 lakh crores from Rs 97,000 crores under the borrowing option.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that 21 states have chosen borrowing option 1 for compensation of revenue shortfall due to GST implementation, adding that the Centre is not denying compensation to any state but those states which have not chosen to any borrowing option have to borrow from the market.
Besides, the present GSTR-1/3B return filing system will be extended till March 31, 2021 and the GST laws to be amended to make the GSTR-1/3B return filing system as the default return filing system.