Maha govt tables bill to amend GST Act to provide transparent services to taxpayers

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday tabled the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the Assembly to amend the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 with a total of 13 amendments.

The bill aims to implement the amendments in the Central GST Act at the state level as per the Finance Act, 2025, passed by the Central government in March 2025. This will create uniformity in the laws of the Centre and the state, and taxpayers will get more convenient and transparent services, he added.

The bill proposes revised provisions in the input service distributor, time of supply, distribution of deposit, ease of appeal process, track and trace mechanism, as well as provisions on the supply of specific goods.

Amendments have also been suggested in the provisions of Sections 2, 12, 13, 17, 20, 34, 38, 39, 107, 112, 122, 148 and Schedule. In particular, the new provisions will be applicable to the supply of goods in Special Economic Zones or Free Trade Warehouses. If only a penalty is demanded while appealing, only a 10 per cent advance payment will be allowed.

The bill proposes to amend the provision with regard to payment of pre-deposit at 10 per cent instead of 25 per cent for filing appeals before the Appellate Authority in cases involving only the demand of penalty without involving the demand of tax.

The bill proposes to insert a new provision to provide for payment of pre-deposit at 10 per cent for filing appeals before the Appellate Tribunal in cases involving only the demand of penalty without involving the demand of tax.

Section 122 B is being inserted to provide a penalty for contravention of provisions related to the Track and Trace Mechanism provided under section 148A. The bill proposes to amend Schedule III with retrospective effect from July 1, 2017.

Due to this amendment, the supply of goods warehoused in a Special Economic Zone or in a Free Trade Warehousing Zone to any person before clearance for exports or to the Domestic Tariff Area shall be treated neither as a supply of goods nor as a supply of services.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that these amendments are not limited to legal compliance only, but are aimed at providing easy and transparent services to taxpayers. He also clarified that this is an important step taken to make the implementation of the GST system more efficient.

--IANS

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