The GST Council, in its 57th meeting on 8 October 2026, recommended omitting the arrest power in section 69 of the CGST Act, raising the prosecution threshold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore and cutting the general penalty from ₹25,000 to ₹10,000. It also recommended system-sanctioned refunds, refund of credit on capital goods and input services, a shorter list of blocked credits and a simpler registration for small e-commerce sellers. None of it is law yet: each item needs a circular, notification or amendment.
Gross GST revenue for September 2026 was ₹2,03,521 crore against ₹1,77,365 crore in September 2025, a growth of 14.7%. Domestic revenue grew 10.1% and import revenue 25.9%. Refunds were ₹27,001 crore, 3.0% lower, leaving net revenue of ₹1,76,520 crore, up 18.1%. The figures are provisional.
GSTN has added a Multistate Registration tab on the portal home page. Common details are entered once through a Master TRN and flow into each State application. For now it is only for normal taxpayers.
GSTN has released emSigner version 3.3 for tokens issued on or after 21 September 2026. Older versions will not work with the new tokens; existing working DSCs need no change.
The Anti-Evasion Branch found inadmissible input tax credit availed and passed on through bogus invoices of about ₹140.14 crore. The proprietor was arrested under section 69 of the CGST Act.
GSTN has removed the portal validation that stopped appeals against demand orders showing a NIL or zero amount, where the liability is disputed and the payment was made before the order.
Searches at six premises in Chitrakoot and Banda led to seizure of 15.5 lakh pouches. Since the capacity-based levy began on 1 February 2026, DGGI has booked 27 cases with evasion of ₹668 crore.
Instruction 01/2026-GST follows a draft C&AG performance audit on GST on minerals, which found no structured mechanism for State Mining Authorities to share cases of illegal mining and transport with the GST formations.
The GST portal advisory of 18 May 2026 replaces the PDF Annexure-B with a standard Excel offline utility for refunds of accumulated input tax credit — exports and SEZ supplies without tax, inverted tax structure, and export of electricity. Invoices are reported HSN/SAC-wise and checked against GSTR-2B.
From 1 February 2026, the value of supply of pan masala and notified tobacco goods on which a retail sale price is declared is the retail sale price less the tax, under new rule 31D of the CGST Rules read with Notification No. 19/2025-Central Tax.
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