CBIC said that no GST is payable where a residential dwelling is rented to a GST registered person if it is rented it in his or her personal capacity for use as his or her own residence. This exemption is applicable when the dwelling is rented on his own account and not on account of his business. This brings clarity about the GST liability of proprietors of businesses on rented properties.

CBIC also said that the tax rate changes cleared by the Council will be effective from 1 January. Accordingly, ethyl alcohol supplied to refineries for blending with motor spirit (petrol) will only attract 5% GST against 18% now.

The Council had decided to lower the rate on the husk of pulses, including chilka and concentrates, to zero from 5%. It had also decided to include supply of mentha arvensis under reverse charge mechanism as has been done for mentha oil in order to improve tax compliance.

At the last Council meeting on 17 December, Centre and states had clarified on the applicability of GST cess on sports utility vehicles and decided to decriminalise certain provisions of the law.

As per this, the minimum threshold of tax amount for launching prosecution under GST has been raised to ₹2 crore from ₹1 crore, except for the offence of issuing invoices without supply of goods or services.

The Council had also decided to reduce the compounding amount from the present range of 50-150% of tax amount to 25-100%.