57th Meeting of the GST Council

On 8 October 2026, the 57th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council was held under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, proposing a comprehensive five-point plan to simplify tax compliance.

Key Points

Five-Point Reform Proposal: The Ministry of Finance introduced a special five-point action plan to eliminate administrative hurdles and reduce the compliance burden on small businesses.
Focus on Ease of Doing Business: As proposed, auto-matching of bill receipts between buyers and sellers will be introduced, and paperwork related to Input Tax Credit (ITC) claims will be reduced.
Relief for Small Taxpayers: It is proposed to reduce the number of return filings for small traders and remove the obligation for them to obtain separate registrations across multiple states.
Context of Previous Meeting: The previous—and 56th significant—meeting of the GST Council was held last year in September 2025.