GST Council Meeting on October 8: Five-Area Reform Plan on Process, Refunds, Exports and E-commerce
The Centre will place a reform plan covering five areas before the GST Council at its meeting on 8 October 2026 in New Delhi. The meeting was earlier set for 7 October and is reported to be the Council's 57th meeting.
The five areas are: process reforms, structural reforms, ease of living and doing business, exports of services, and e-commerce.
GST rates are not expected to change at this meeting. The focus is on making compliance (following the tax rules) simpler, after the big rate overhaul of September 2025.
One key idea is a wider refund of tax credit stuck because of an inverted duty structure, so that credit on input services and capital goods can also be refunded. Reports suggest refunds for input services could start this financial year and those for capital goods from April 2027.
Other proposals include easier GST registration for small sellers on e-commerce platforms, and clearer rules for services that Indian companies supply through their overseas branches. Reports also mention a possible removal of GST officers' power to arrest, while keeping prosecution for deliberate fraud; this would need Parliament to change the law.
The GST Council (Article 279A)
The GST Council is a body made up of the Union Finance Minister and the finance ministers of all states. It recommends the main rules of the Goods and Services Tax (GST): tax rates, which goods and services are taxed, exemptions and procedures. It was created by the Constitution itself, through Article 279A, added by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016.
The five-area plan is a set of proposals from the Centre. It becomes a Council recommendation only if it gets the required three-fourths weighted vote, and law changes (like on arrests) still need Parliament.
Inverted Duty Structure Under GST
An inverted duty structure is when the tax on what a business buys (its inputs) is higher than the tax on what it sells (its output). For example, a maker may pay 18% GST on raw materials but charge only 5% GST on the finished product. Because it collects less tax than it has already paid, unused input tax credit (ITC) keeps piling up and blocks the business's money.
Including input services and capital goods in the refund would release money that is now stuck with businesses. This would help sectors where input taxes are higher than output taxes.
Zero-Rated Supplies Under GST: Exports and SEZ Supplies
A zero-rated supply is a sale on which the final GST burden is zero, while the seller can still recover all the GST it paid on its inputs. Under India's GST, only two kinds of supply are zero-rated: exports of goods or services, and supplies to Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The idea is simple: India should export its goods and services, not its taxes.
The proposal on exports of services aims to remove doubt about services supplied through overseas branches of Indian companies. Clear rules would reduce disputes for IT and business-process firms.
- GST Council meeting date: 8 October 2026 (shifted from 7 October), New Delhi; reported as the 57th meeting
- Five reform areas: process reforms, structural reforms, ease of living and doing business, exports of services, e-commerce
- No broad rate changes expected; the September 2025 overhaul moved GST to two main slabs of 5% and 18%
- Proposed refund widening: input services possibly in the current financial year; capital goods possibly from April 2027
- GST Council: Article 279A, 101st Amendment Act, 2016; quorum one-half; decisions by three-fourths weighted vote (Centre one-third, states two-thirds)
- Inverted duty refund: Section 54(3) CGST Act; Rule 89(5) CGST Rules; VKC Footsteps case (2021)
- Export of services: defined in Section 2(6) IGST Act; zero-rating under Section 16 IGST Act