The GST Council has relaxed return filing rules for businesses for the first two months of the rollout of the new indirect tax regime. As per the revised return filing timeline decided by the Council, for July, the sale returns will have to be filed by September 5 instead of August 10.

The GST council in its 17th meeting, chaired by the Finance minister Arun Jaitley, has also decided to apply tax rate on state-run lottery at 12 %, while govt-authorised private lottery will be taxed at 28 %. State run lotteries are those which are run by the state government, while the state authorized lotteries are operated by private companies but the lottery bears the state’s name.