GST Council's 30th meeting today, may consider cess on select items to help flood-hit Kerala

The 30th meeting of the GST Council will be chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley through video-conferencing today. The Council, which is the apex decision making body on issues related to the GST, is expected to consider imposition of cess on select items to help flood-ravaged Kerala recoup losses.

Imposition of a new cess may require the government to amend the GST Act as the indirect tax, which was implemented on July 1, 2017, had subsumed along with excise tax, service tax all other cess, surcharges within its fold.

Kerala has welcomed the proposal to impose a cess on select items to help the state recover losses suffered due to floods.


The Council, in its last meeting, had constituted a sub-committee headed by the minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla to look at various issues being faced by the MSME sector. The Council also decided to offer cashback to poor sections of society for making digital payments through BHIM, RuPay, UPI.

GST collections dipped in August to its lowest in the the current fiscal at Rs 96, 483 crore. The Council may look at ways to boost revenue collection.