The GST Council on Saturday decided to raise the monetary threshold for launching prosecutions under GST law to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1 crore now and decriminalise three types of offences.

However, there was no decision on the creation of appellate tribunals or the GoM report on the tax regime for casinos, online games and horse racing.

“In this meeting, there has not been any tax increase on any item. Everything that has been done is to issue clarifications where the ambiguity of interpretations prevails,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters while briefing them about the decisions taken at the virtual meeting of the GST Council which was held after a gap of six months.

The offences which would no longer be criminalised are: obstruction or preventing any officer in discharge of his duties; deliberate tampering of material evidence; and failure to supply the information, stated a press release.

The Council has doubled the threshold for starting prosecution from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore. It has further decided to reduce the compounding amount from the present range of 50-150 per cent of tax amount to 25-100 per cent.

Abhishek Jain, partner indirect tax, KPMG in India, said: “Consensus for sometime had been that there should be an increase in the monetary threshold for prosecution as the current threshold is very low, which makes it difficult for the administration to handle cases.”

Saurabh Agarwal, tax partner, EY India, said: “The refund of GST paid to unregistered buyers in the event of cancellation of services (under construction flat, insurance policies) is likely to provide relief to the masses though its implementation would likely take a period of 1-1.5 years as it would require amendment in states as well.”