Highlights of the 27th GST council meeting held on 4th May 2018:

GST Return Simplification:

GSTR 1 and GTR 3B will continue for the next 6 months.
New Single-return plan will go live after 6 months. Thus, there will be only 12 returns a year, instead of 36 returns.
Post the new return going live, provisional credit can be claimed by the return preparers in the transitional phase of 6 months based on self-calculations.
The GSTN shows the buyer, invoices uploaded by the seller and thus buyer can check the gap between the credit claimed by him and actually allowed to him.
After 6 months of the transition period, if it is noticed that after uploading the invoices, the seller has not paid the tax amount to the government, GSTN has all the right to recover these taxes from the buyer. There will be no automatic reversal of credit from the buyer in these cases.
No provisional credit can be claimed after this 6 month transition period.
Nil return preparers and Composition dealers will file GST returns quarterly

Sugar Cess implementation has been postponed. The government believes that there should be a better way to increase revenue for the benefit of the farmers.
Duties on Ethanol – Reduction in rate suggested.
A group of ministers expected to work on these two above mentioned points and make recommendations within two weeks.

Incentives here may need more time to come in force. A 5 member council will work on this before the next council meet.

The GSTN will now be a government-owned company with the central government holding 50% and state governments holding the balance 50% of the stakeholding. The holdings by the state governments will be on pro-rata basis based on the GST ratios.
There is a scope for better employment as GSTN looks forward to recruiting more people

The expectations from the 27th GST council meet included –

A comprehensive single return with details of inward and outward supplies. This will reduce the number of returns, help in invoice matching and have all details in one place. The focus will be on making everything tech savvy, on the move and supporting the idea of Digital India.
Simplified ITC claiming process is the need of the hour to avoid waiting for confirmations, acceptances from the recipient or tedious tasks of uploading sale/purchase details to avail the credit.

A possible process wherein the E-Way bill is checked just once during transit
Alternate lines for uploading details for generating EWBs in case of unsupported formats
One-nation, one format for generating E-Way bill stated will avoid having their own forms in addition to the basic notified ones.

Preponement of applicability of Reverse charge mechanism(Before June 30). This could be initiated only for a particular class of taxpayers, say dealers under composition scheme.

Imposition of a cess on sugar to help farmers
Include Real Estate/transfer of property into the GST regime
Amendment of the ITC provision in the GST to enable any business to take credit on any business-related expenses (employee transport etc.)
Exemptions for payments made by employees for the services received from the employers (eg: canteen services)
Based on various adjudications on anti-profiteering norms under GST, some clarity is expected from the council
Encouragement for digital transactions by providing cash-backs, discounts, credits etc.