GST Council meet: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a landmark decision to exempt platform tickets and various other services provided by the Indian Railways from Goods and Services Tax (GST), relieving the burden on millions of commuters.

The announcement followed the 53rd pre-budget meeting with state finance ministers on Saturday, June 22, 2024.

This decision is part of the government's continued efforts to make rail travel more affordable and readily available to the general public.

Other big decision at the GST Council meet

• The Finance Minister also announced biometric-based Aadhaar authentication to prevent fake invoicing.
  
• “There is going to be a rolling out of biometric-based Aadhaar authentication on an all-India basis. This will help us to combat fraudulent input tax credit claims made through fake invoices in the cases,” the minister announced.
• Sitharaman also revealed that the GST Council had suggested extending the deadline for small taxpayers to file returns from April 30 to June 30. 
• “In order to help small taxpayers, the Council recommended extending the time limit to furnish the details and the returns in the form GSTR 4 from 30th April, the council has recommended that it be extended to 30th June. This will apply for returns for the Financial Year 2024- 25 onwards."
• The finance minister announced that the GST Council had recommended waiving interest and penalties for demand notices issued under Section 73 of the GST Act, excluding instances involving fraud, suppression or misstatements. 
• The finance minister announced that the GST Council had recommended waiving interest and penalties for demand notices issued under Section 73 of the GST Act including cases not involving fraud, suppression or misstatements. 
• “The time limit to avail input tax credit in respect of any invoice or debit note under section 16(4) of the CGST Act filed up to the 30-11-2021 for the financial years 17-18, 18-19, 19-20 and 20-21 may be deemed to be 2011 to 2021. So for the same requisite amendment retrospectively with effect from 1 July 2017, the council has made a recommendation." 
• “For all those notices which were issued under Section 73 for the Fiscal Years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, the Council has recommended waiving interest and penalties on the demand notices which have been served.”