GST Council Unveils Next-Gen Reforms: Export Services, Refunds, Tribunal, and Rate Simplification

• GST Council introduced next generation GST reforms in its 56th meeting.
• Intermediary services place of supply aligned to recipient of supply.
• Section 13(8)(b) to be omitted, making place of supply the location of the recipient.
• Marketing and fulfillment services provided abroad to be considered export of service.
• Amendment aims to resolve disputes regarding services by Global Capability Centers.
• Risk-based provisional refunds to be implemented from November 2025.
• 90 percent refund for zero-rated supplies and inverted duty cases.
• Removal of low value threshold for export shipments.
• GST Appellate Tribunal to be operationalized with appeals accepted before September 2025 end.
• Hearings to start before December 2025 end with backlog appeals limited to 30 June 2026.
• Principal Bench to act as National Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling.
• GST rate structure simplified from 4 tiers to 2 tiers.
• Standard rate of 18 percent and merit rate of 5 percent retained.
• 12 percent slab abolished and special de-merit rate of 40 percent introduced.
• Compensation cess to be phased out.

Source: vaishlaw.com

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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