MSME Issues Taken Up at 29th GST Council Meet: Piyush Goyal ; Sub-Committees Formed to Address MSME Issues

Finally, MSME perspective has got attention at the 29th GST Council meeting. Headed by the Interim Finance Minister, Mr. Piyush Goyal the meeting came out with some key takeaways for the MSMEs.

The GST Council has announced a sub-committee headed by MoS Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla to look into various GST-related issues and concerns of the MSME sector and submit a report. The issues related to law would be taken up by the law committee and issues related to rates would be taken up by the fitment committee, finance minister Piyush Goyal told reporters.

As expected the 29^th GST Council Meeting focused on the issues that are faced by the MSMEs and in the entire meeting taxation-related grievances faced by the country’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have got fair amount of attention from the policymakers.

The GST council meeting also catered to all aspects of GST from simplification of policy, reducing compliance burden to technology-related issues which affect the MSME sector.

Earlier this week, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had written to the GST Council secretariat asking them to write to states and UTs asking them to contact MSME taxpayers and their trade and industry associations in their respective states and UTs, collect their grievances/issues related to GST along with suggestions thereof for mitigating the issues. Reports claimed that 157 suggestions have poured in from the stakeholders, all of which will be taken up during the meet.

The formation of multiple committees is a positive takeaway for entrepreneurs from the MSME sector. The impact of these decisions can only be judged in a couple of fortnights from the day of executions but these efforts were much needed.