15th GST Council Meeting held on 3rd June, 2017 in New Delhi

With the series of GST Meetings, the 15th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi. The abstract of the meeting is as below:
1: Pending rules related to transition provisions and returns has been cleared by the GST Council.
2: The matter related to Lottery Tax has been discussed, but no concrete decision was taken on the same.
3: With respect to the provisions of the Transitional Rules the following amendments have been approved by the GST Council:
a)Traders and retailers to be allowed to take input tax credit of 60% against CGST and SGST dues on those stock items (with no documents of evidence of payment of tax) lying with them as on the date preceding the appointed day where GST Rate exceeds 18%
b) Traders and retailers to be allowed to take input tax credit of 40% against CGST and SGST dues on those stock items (with no documents of evidence of payment of tax) lying with them as on the date preceding the appointed day where GST Rate is 18% or less.
4: It has been decided by the GST Council to set up a committee to look profoundly into the complaints regarding the Anti-Profiteering Clause.
5: Certain Items were finalized and the GST Rates for the same are as under:
a) Gold, Gems, Jewellery to be taxed at 3 percent. Gold might become slightly costlier as the current incidence is 2 percent.
b) Footwear will be taxed under Two Categories:
- Footwear Priced under Rs. 500 :- @ 5%
- Footwear Priced over Rs. 500 :- @ 18%
c) Apparels will be taxed under following categories:
- Apparels which are man-made and costing upto Rs. 1000 shall attract 5%.
- Apparels which are costing above Rs. 1000 shall attract 12%.
- Silk and Jute Fibre have been exempted.
d) All variety of Biscuits shall be attracting Tax Rate of 18%.
e) Items which are packaged and sold under the registered trademark would be attracting Tax Rate of 5%.
f) Solar Panel Equipments would attract Tax Rate of 5%.
g) It has been decided to charge 18% Tax Rate on the Beedi Leaf and 28% shall be charged on Beedis.