The GST Council’s crucial September session has been delayed to October amid scheduling conflicts with the BRICS summit in New Delhi, prompting delays in key tax reforms and compliance measures for businesses.
Plans to hold the GST Council’s next sitting in New Delhi on 12 September have been pushed back, with 7 October now emerging as the most likely replacement date after a clash with the BRICS summit in the capital. Mint and NewsBytes both reported the revised timetable on Sunday, while the Press Information Bureau has already confirmed that India’s 2026 BRICS chairship will culminate in the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12 and 13 September.
The scheduling problem goes beyond a diary conflict. The Latest Stories reported that foreign delegations are expected to begin arriving in Delhi on 11 September and leave on 14 September, creating heavy demands on security, traffic control and administration. It added that central government offices in the city may shut on 11 September and that some schools could either move classes online or declare a holiday, underlining why officials were reluctant to run a high-level tax meeting alongside the summit.
The GST Council had only recently been put back on the calendar after a gap of more than a year. According to The Indian Express, Revenue Secretary Arvind Shrivastava, who serves as the council’s ex-officio secretary, issued an office memorandum on 28 August fixing the 57th meeting for 12 September in Delhi. Mint said the last council meeting was held on 3 September 2025, making this the first sitting since the big indirect tax reset branded by some officials and advisers as GST 2.0.
While the venue is still expected to remain New Delhi, the revised date has not yet been formally notified. NDTV Profit reported that officials’ preparatory sessions are now pencilled in for 5 and 6 October, and The Latest Stories carried the same expected sequence. That suggests the Centre is working towards a full rescheduling rather than a shorter deferment, although the final green light is still expected to follow consultations with states.
The delay matters because the meeting is expected to take up a stack of business-facing compliance issues that companies have been waiting on for months. NewsBytes reported that one proposal under discussion would allow buyers to retain input tax credit even where a supplier fails to deposit GST, provided the buyer can show that payment was made through proper banking channels. Money9live said other likely subjects include credit on vehicles bought by companies for employee use, credit on group health and life insurance, the treatment of corporate guarantees between group entities, easier multi-state registration for smaller businesses, refund rules and the fate of unutilised input tax credit.
Some of those issues stem directly from last year’s rate overhaul. The Indian Express said the September 2025 changes compressed much of the goods structure into broad 5% and 18% slabs, while placing luxury goods in a special 40% band. That shift left unresolved transition questions, particularly where inputs still attract higher tax than final output, and where compensation cess rules changed. The newspaper also reported that the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations approached the Supreme Court over about Rs 2,500 crore of dues tied to vehicles that had been ordered at the old tax rates before the regime was altered.
Tax advisers have been pressing the council to use the next sitting to tidy up those loose ends rather than simply announce more piecemeal changes. Manoj Mishra, partner and tax controversy management leader at Grant Thornton Bharat, told The Indian Express: “The focus should now shift from incremental changes to improving the quality of the GST framework itself.” He also pointed to legacy disputes, blocked credits caused by supplier defaults, and the need to reduce interpretational ambiguity that continues to feed litigation and compliance costs.
For now, though, the immediate task is simply finding room in a crowded September calendar. The BRICS summit dates are fixed by the government, but the GST Council’s revised meeting date is still awaiting formal confirmation. If 7 October is cleared, the postponement would give ministers and officials a little more time to prepare, but it would also defer decisions on rate rationalisation and long-promised compliance relief measures that businesses had expected to see taken up in September.
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