57th GST Council Scraps Arrest Powers and Raises the Prosecution Threshold to Rs 5 Crore

8 October 2026National

The 57th GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, met at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi on 8 October 2026 and recommended a decisive shift to trust-based taxation. It cleared the removal of GST officers' power to arrest under Section 69 of the CGST Act, raised the criminal prosecution threshold from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore, cut the general penalty from Rs 25,000 to Rs 10,000, shortened refund acknowledgement from 15 days to 10, and allowed small e-commerce sellers a simplified registration without premises in each state. GST rates were left unchanged, with rate matters moving to one dedicated meeting a year.

Static GK

The GST Council is a constitutional body created by Article 279A, inserted by the Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016; the Union Finance Minister chairs it | The Council's decisions need three-fourths of weighted votes, with the Centre holding one-third and all states together two-thirds | GST was rolled out on 1 July 2017 and the GST Council's first meeting was held in September 2016

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