The 39th GST Council meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman on 14 March in New Delhi. Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, along with Finance Ministers of States/UTs and seniors officers of the Ministry of Finance, participated in the meeting. Highlights: The officials discussed the issues faced by the taxpayers in the GST system. A summary of the recently observed IT issues, and the way forward to resolve them was submitted. The meeting focused on smoothening the rollout of the new return system and ensured the transition to the new return system is made in an incremental manner. The meeting addressed the compliance-related issues so that the problem of tax evasion and gaming of the system due to non-linking of FORM GSTR-1 and FORM GSTR-3B is addressed immediately. The officials stated that in order to tackle and prevent the gaming of the system, implementation of Aadhaar authentication and spike rules would be initiated. GST Council: GST Council governs the tax rates, rules, and regulations in the country. It is chaired by the Finance Minister of India. The council consists of the finance ministers of the central government and all the states.
