19th GST Council Meeting held on 17th july, 2017 by Video Conferencing

Post GST Launch, the first meeting and being the 19th GST Council meeting from September last year was conducted via Video Conferencing. The abstract of the same is as below:
1: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the hiked cess on cigarettes to take away the windfall manufacturers were reaping due to an anomaly that crept in after the GST rate fixation.
2: 28 percent stays on the as the peak GST rate and subsequently 5 percent a valorem cess on top of it.
3: The fixed Cess has been hiked between Rs. 485 and Rs. 792 per thousand sticks.
4: It is estimated that Rs. 5000 Crore of additional tax, the increase in cess would bring in.
5: Cigarettes have been categorised under the 28% Tax Slab. Moreover, a 5 percent ad valorem cess has been levied.
6: Further, Rs. 1,591 per thousand sticks is computed as fixed cess considering both the categories whether filter and non-filter cigarettes of not exceeding 65mm length.
7: Arun Jaitely even said, "the GST Council has raised the fixed cess by Rs485 to Rs792 per thousand sticks. Consumer prices will, however, not change as the increased tax incidence would only take away the windfall profits the manufacturers were earning".