NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair her first meeting of the GST Council on Friday which, among other things, would consider extending the tenure of the anti-profiteering authority by a year, setting up a single point refund system and a mechanism for businesses to issue e-invoices.
Terming employment generation as one of his priorities, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said Thursday that the MSME sector offers huge potential and the government is ready to come out with special policies to promote import-substitute products.
The rupee Friday fell 22 paise to trade at 69.66 against the US dollar in early trade following foreign fund outflows and rising crude prices after Iran said it had shot down a US military drone.
The government on Thursday said the manual intervention introduced in the previously automated system of integrated GST refund to exporters would only apply to 3.5% of exprorters perceived to be ‘risky’ while the remaining exporters would continue to apply and receive timely refunds through the online system.
Some newspapers have on Thursday highlighted a perceived set-back to the automated process of refunds for exporters under GST on account of the introduction of manual checks to curb large scale frauds in IGST refunds, said the government in an official release.
It has been two years since GST has been implemented in India. The deadline for filing GST annual returns is approaching fast.