The GST Council will meet on October 7 for the first time in more than a year, with refunds, registration and export-of-services rules on the agenda instead of rates.
With the rate overhaul of September 2025 now settled, the focus has shifted to making it easier and faster for businesses to operate within the GST system.
“There is no further exercise at present to rationalise the rates. The rates are stable. It has been almost a year, and there are no major complaints. The focus now is on process reforms,” a senior government official told Moneycontrol.
An tax expert told Moneycontrol: “GST’s next meeting is about unwinding administrative friction, not altering rates.”
Export relief for global capability centres
The Council may also address a tax anomaly that has affected India’s services exporters, particularly global capability centres (GCCs).
GCCs, the India units of multinational firms, undertake engineering, product development and testing for their overseas group companies and are paid in foreign exchange. However, such services can still attract 18 percent GST because of rules determining where a service is considered to have been delivered.
If an overseas group sends goods to its Indian centre and the centre carries out work on those goods, the law treats the service as delivered in India rather than abroad. This takes it outside the export category, even though the client is overseas and pays in foreign exchange.
The proposed amendment would allow such services to qualify as exports, meaning no GST would be charged and tax paid on inputs could be refunded.
For service providers, this could be among the biggest reliefs on the table. It could also help attract more work to India and generate foreign exchange at a time when global uncertainty has raised concerns over dollar inflows.
Another tax expert told Moneycontrol: “The true measure of success will dictate the speed at which these conceptual reforms translate into clear, actionable operational rules on the ground.”
Refunds may move from officer discretion to the system
The Council approved the release of 90 percent of eligible refunds within seven days in September 2025, but an officer still has to determine whether a taxpayer qualifies as low-risk before the money is released.
The proposal is to use a risk score to make that assessment. The system would evaluate each claim against the taxpayer’s records and filings. Claims that match the available data would be treated as low-risk and eligible for automatic release, while mismatched claims would be held back.
The change would require an amendment to the GST Act, turning an administrative instruction into a statutory provision.
Easier GST registration for small online sellers
The Council may also ease the multi-state registration burden on small online sellers.
Under the current rules, a seller based in Delhi that wants to sell in Pune through an e-commerce platform needs a separate GST registration in Maharashtra, which in turn requires a place of business in the state.
The proposed amendment would allow the seller to obtain the Maharashtra registration on the strength of its Delhi registration, using the e-commerce platform’s warehouse in the state as its place of business.
This would mean the seller would not have to establish its own premises in every state where it sells. The Council is expected to consider the change at its October 7 meeting, and it would require an amendment to the GST law.
The relief is expected to be limited to micro enterprises and subject to a threshold. It would not extend to large companies that have the ability to establish operations in different states.
Why the reforms matter
Wider refunds for inverted duty claims, where businesses pay more tax on inputs than they collect on their sales, are still being worked out. The proposal could cover machinery and input services, with the revenue impact currently under assessment.
Input tax credit (ITC), the credit businesses receive for tax paid on their purchases, is another area of focus.
Another tax expert told Moneycontrol that invoice-level details on the GST Network portal “should allow honest buyers to avail input tax credit in a timely manner”.
While states rejected the Rajiv Gauba-led committee’s proposal for a single nationwide GST registration, the reforms under consideration for October 7 could significantly ease compliance and operational processes for businesses.
