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The GST Council was scheduled to consider a package of tax changes on October 7, 2026, including removing GST arrest provisions and releasing 90% of eligible refunds after a risk check. These are reported proposals, not confirmed decisions or current rules: the material available before the meeting does not establish that the Council adopted them.
What is the GST Council reportedly considering?
An Economic Times report credited to ANI, dated October 5, 2026, said the proposals were expected to be considered at the Council’s 57th meeting on October 7. It attributed details to unnamed Finance Ministry sources. No adoption is confirmed in the information available before that meeting.
The reported package would rely more on civil consequences—tax recovery, interest and penalties—while retaining prosecution for serious cases. The report also described a proposed increase in the prosecution threshold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore and changes to the offence and sentencing framework:
- Nine offences would be removed and one partly removed.
- Twenty-four offences would be softened, while 11 would remain.
- Minimum sentences would be eliminated, a fine would be available in every case, and the maximum sentence for the middle category would fall from three years to two.
These counts and proposed penalties are attributed to the report’s sources; they are not confirmed amendments to the law. The report does not establish the detailed effect on arrest authority, bailability or which cases would qualify as serious.
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Would GST arrests be scrapped?
That is the reported proposal, not a confirmed repeal. The GST Council’s official website provides access to the CGST Act, rules, notifications, circulars and instructions, including arrest-and-bail guidelines. The proposal alone does not change the law. Anyone facing a specific GST investigation should check the latest Act and applicable notifications rather than assume arrest provisions have been removed.
Would 90% of GST refunds be paid automatically?
Under the October report’s proposed process, 90% of eligible refund claims would be released after a risk check, with the balance paid after verification. “Automatic” therefore does not mean an unconditional payment to every claimant: the reported advance depends on eligibility and a risk assessment, and the remaining amount follows verification.
The report also described acknowledgements within 10 days, deemed acknowledgement if an officer did not act within that period, and less reliance on separately scanned documents by using information from customs, the Reserve Bank of India and other sources. It said the possible scope could include services and plant and machinery, with a five-year period for plant-and-machinery refunds, and duty-drawback exporters. These are all reported features of a proposal, not established new entitlements or procedures.
Does a 90% provisional GST refund already exist?
Yes, official GST Council publications already describe a 90% provisional refund mechanism for certain qualifying claims. It is not a general guarantee for all refunds. The October 2025 Council newsletter said low-risk applications could receive 90% provisionally after the required acknowledgement; applications not assessed as low risk would not receive provisional sanction and would instead undergo detailed scrutiny. Statutory eligibility conditions and exclusions still apply, and an officer may examine a claim in specified circumstances.
The 56th GST Council release recommended provisional 90% refunds for zero-rated supplies and inverted-duty-structure claims, based on system risk evaluation and subject to detailed scrutiny in exceptional cases. It gave November 1, 2025 as the operational date for those measures.
Later publications qualify the legal status of the inverted-duty-structure change. The Council Secretariat’s January 2026 newsletter described it as a Finance Bill 2026 proposal, with changes to take effect on a date to be notified. Its March 2026 newsletter said the Finance Act had received assent on March 30 and that the relevant provisional-refund changes would take effect from dates to be notified. Those newsletters did not state the exact effective date. Check the applicable notification for the claim in question.
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How the existing and reported refund processes differ
| Feature | Existing official description | October 2026 report’s proposal |
|---|---|---|
| Who may receive an advance | Qualifying low-risk applications; statutory conditions and exclusions apply. | Eligible claims after a risk check; the report did not give a complete eligibility test. |
| Advance amount | 90% provisionally for qualifying claims. | 90% released after the risk check. |
| Remaining balance | Subject to the applicable process and scrutiny; the newsletter says non-low-risk applications undergo detailed scrutiny. | Released after verification. |
| Risk and officer review | System risk evaluation; detailed scrutiny may apply, including in exceptional cases. | Risk check, followed by verification of the balance; the report described a 10-day acknowledgement process. |
| Claim categories | The 56th Council release covered zero-rated supplies and inverted-duty-structure claims. | The report said the possible scope could include services, plant and machinery, and duty-drawback exporters. |
| Effective timing | The 56th Council release stated November 1, 2025 for specified measures; later newsletters said relevant legal changes would take effect on dates to be notified. | No effective date established; the package was reported as a proposal for the October 7, 2026 meeting. |
What exporters and other refund claimants should do
The report estimated that about 38,700 taxpayers currently claim export refunds; that is a figure attributed to the report, not an independently verified official statistic. For an individual business, the practical question is whether its claim meets the existing statutory and risk-screening requirements—not whether a reported proposal might broaden or speed up future refunds.
- Confirm the claim category and current statutory eligibility, including exclusions.
- Do not treat the reported 90% payout, 10-day acknowledgement or expanded categories as operative until they appear in an official notification or other binding instrument.
- Keep records supporting the claim and respond to verification or scrutiny requests under the current process.
- Check official Council publications and notifications for the meeting outcome and any effective dates.
When will the changes take effect?
The available material does not confirm that the Council approved the reported package at its scheduled October 7, 2026 meeting, or provide an effective date for it. A Council recommendation and a change in enforceable law are not interchangeable: look for the official decision and the relevant notification, legislation or amended Act before relying on either proposal.
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