"The 50th meeting of the GST Council will be held on 11th July 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi," the GST Council tweeted.

The council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, comprises finance ministers of states.

50th GST Council meeting: Here's what is expected

According to the PTI news agency, the council will take some more measures to tighten the noose on fake registration and fraudulent generation of input tax credit (ITC) as it looks to check tax evasion.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Chairman Vivek Johri said, "We are thinking of some other measures and we will take them through the due process of the law committee and GST council".

The Council will also discuss the GoM report on online gaming, casinos, and horse racing and will circulate it to the states soon. The GoM submitted its report to the Council in December last year, but the Council has not taken it up for discussion.

Further, the Council will also decide on a convenor for the Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalization.

Moreover, a long-pending demand for the establishment of GST Appellate Tribunals will also be addressed in the upcoming meeting. The GSTATs may reduce the burden on taxpayers and courts by streamlining and expediting indirect tax litigations. The Centre will soon appoint members after approval from the GST Council.

Currently, taxpayers aggrieved with the ruling of tax authorities are required to move to the respective High Courts.

The resolution process takes longer time as High Courts are already burdened with a backlog of cases and do not have a specialised bench to deal with GST cases.

Setting up state and national-level benches would pave the way for faster dispute resolution.

The GST Council is also likely to consider CBIC's proposal to introduce additional validations in the GST return filing system to check evasion and fake input tax credit (ITC) claims.

In a special drive since November 2020, central agencies have detected fake ITC claims worth ₹62,000 crore and arrested 776 persons, including professionals.

The move to introduce certain validations in the return filing system is aimed at checking frauds and revenue loss. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) last week introduced validation and risk rating for GST registrations, as it looks to curb fake entities issuing fake bills just to claim ITC benefits and defraud the exchequer.

The official said the strategy to go in for additional validation both at the time of registration and filing of return is aimed at eliminating tax evasion.