The GST Council has recommended increasing the monetary threshold for launching GST prosecution from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore, significantly restricting criminal proceedings to higher-value cases.
In a major enforcement reform, the Council has proposed raising the GST prosecution threshold five-fold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore.
The Council has also recommended removal of the prescribed minimum punishment, leaving courts with discretion to decide whether a particular case warrants a fine, imprisonment or both.
The change is aimed at ensuring that criminal prosecution is focused more on serious tax fraud while routine or lower-value defaults are primarily addressed through tax, interest and penalty mechanisms. CA Sansaar