<span style="color: #222222;">The Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council has decided to decriminalise certain offences and doubled the threshold for launching prosecution to two crore rupees. The decision was taken at the 48th meeting of the Council which was held through video conferencing under the Chairmanship of Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Sharing the decisions taken in the meeting, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said that three kinds of offences have been recommended to be decriminalised which pertained to obstructing or preventing any officers in the discharge of his duties, deliberate tampering with material evidence, and failure to supply information. He added that the threshold limit of tax amount for launching criminal proceedings was increased from one crore to two crore rupees for all offences other than those involving fake invoices.<br />''<br />''Mr Malhotra said, during the meeting, the  GST has been reduced on husk on pulses from 5 per cent to nil. Ethyl alcohol supplied to refineries for blending with motor spirit or petrol was also cut down to 5 per cent from 18 per cent.<br />''<br />''It was also decided that no GST is payable where the residential dwelling is rented to a registered person if it is rented it in his or her personal capacity for use as his or her own residence and on his own account and not on account of his business.<br />''<br />''The Revenue Secretary also said that a major decision was also taken to facilitate e-commerce for micro-enterprises The council decided to allow the e-commerce operators to supply the products of unregistered vendors, dealers as well as composition taxpayers.</span> <br />''Besides, the Council also decided that incentives paid to banks by Central Government under the scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low value BHIM-UPI transactions are in the nature of subsidy and thus not taxable.<br />''<br />''Addressing the media, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that there has not been any tax increase on any item during the meeting and no new taxation has been brought in. She added that the Council has clarified on what constitutes an SUV and attract the tax applicable for such categories of automobiles.<br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">Ms Sitharaman said the GST panel could decide only 8 items of the 15 agenda items due to paucity of time. She said that the items not considered included one pertaining to setting up of appellate tribunals for GST and taxation on tobacco and gutkha.</span><br />