Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 48th GST Council meeting virtually from delhi on december 17, 2023-24, which is preparing the budget statement for the financial year 2023-24. Tax reduction plays an important role in the decision of many important matters in the meeting. Market kings In this meeting, no new tax has been raised on any goods and services, while the tax on many goods has been reduced. In this 48th GST meeting chaired by the Union Finance minister, the tax on Ethyl alcohol, which is sent to the crude oil refinery to be added to petrol, has been reduced to 5 percent, while earlier it was 18 percent.
In this meeting, the 5 percent duty on husks of all pulses has been reduced to 0 percent. This has reduced the burden on other waste products in the agricultural sector. Also, Fryums are brought under CTH 19059030 and taxed at 18 percent. Rab (Rab-Salawat) is classified under CTH 1702 and declared to attract 18 percent GST. After extracting the sugar from the molasses, the sugar mills sell it in the market, while the remaining molasses is reboiled to form Rab Salawat, which is generally edible by animals. 
It has been explained that the incentive given by the central government to banks under the scheme to encourage people to use Rupee Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions is not taxable as it is in the nature of a subsidy.
Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told a press conference at the end of the meeting that the GST Council has decided on 8 out of 15 issues due to time constraints. The setting up of Appellate Tribunals for GST was not discussed in the meeting. No decision was taken on the much-awaited tax on tobacco and gutka in this GST meeting. 
As a result, there is a possibility that there will be an announcement in the budget meeting that cigarettes should not be sold individually but should be sold in whole packets. Similarly, the GST on online gaming and casinos, which was expected across India, was not discussed in the 48th GST Council meeting. The GST Council on saturday decriminalized some offenses. It has agreed to change, raising the threshold for initiating a case from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said.
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