57th GST Council meets: arrest powers to go, prosecution threshold up to ₹5 crore.

The 57th GST Council met on 8 October 2026 after two postponements. It recommended scrapping tax officers' arrest powers, raising the prosecution threshold to ₹5 crore, and cutting the general penalty — with no rate changes.

The 57th GST Council meeting, twice postponed — from 12 September to 7 October, then to 8 October 2026 — finally met on Thursday 8 October 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. Unlike the September sitting, this one was not primarily about rates. The headline outcome is decriminalisation: tax officers' power to arrest under the GST law is set to go, enforcement shifting toward civil recovery with prosecution reserved for serious, high-value cases.

Here is what the Council actually recommended, how it differs from what was reported going in, and the two unrelated 15 September deadlines that passed regardless.

What the Council recommended

These outcomes are confirmed across multiple independent reports (TaxGuru, CAclubindia, and others), not merely agenda items:

• Arrest powers removed. The Council recommended omitting Section 69 of the CGST Act, which currently empowers officers to arrest. Enforcement will rely on recovery of tax, interest and penalty, with criminal prosecution kept for serious cases rather than used as routine leverage.
• Prosecution threshold raised from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore. A much smaller share of disputes will now cross into criminal-prosecution territory at all.
• Mandatory minimum punishment removed. Courts retain discretion rather than being bound to a floor sentence in the cases that still qualify for prosecution.
• General penalty cut from ₹25,000 to ₹10,000. A straightforward reduction in the default penalty quantum under the Act.
• No GST rate changes came out of this meeting — the rate structure is untouched.

A formal notification implementing these recommendations is expected to follow in due course; as reported, one proposed timeline puts implementation around April 2027, but that detail has only a single source so far and should be treated as unconfirmed until a notification is issued.

Who should care

Anyone who has faced, or feared, a GST arrest threat. The practical leverage tax officers held over businesses in a dispute changes materially once arrest is off the table and the prosecution bar moves to ₹5 crore. This matters most for founders and finance teams who have treated GST notices as carrying personal-liberty risk, not just a tax bill.

Anyone sitting on a refund claim or registration question that was reportedly also on this agenda (automatic refunds, Section 17(5) input tax credit, inverted-duty refunds, registration simplification): none of those items were confirmed as decided in the reporting on this meeting. Treat them as still pending unless a separate notification confirms otherwise — don't assume the whole September agenda cleared on 8 October.

The two dates that did not move

While the Council slipped twice, 15 September 2026 did not, and it carried two separate obligations that have already passed.

The second advance-tax instalment for tax year 2026-27 fell due. It is cumulative, not a quarter in isolation: by that date you needed 45% of your full-year estimated liability paid in, counting what went in by 15 June. The same arithmetic applies to the 15 December instalment at 75%, so if the September one was short, the shortfall is worth sizing now rather than in December. Paying another 15% because it feels like a quarterly instalment is the classic way to attract interest under Section 234C while believing you have paid on time. Our advance-tax guide sets out all four dates, and the advance-tax calculator sizes the instalment.

The same date was the close of CCFS-2026, the MCA amnesty that let pending ROC filings be made at 10% of the additional fee. It had already been extended twice and no third extension followed, so arrears now carry the full additional fee, growing daily. We set out what that means, including the FC-3 and FC-4 filings foreign parents forget, in CCFS-2026 has closed: what pending ROC filings cost now.

How Advisory Monks Consulting helps

We track Council outcomes against what was actually recommended, not just what was tabled, so clients don't plan around an agenda item that quietly dropped off. If a dispute, a refund position or an arrears clean-up turns on what the GST Council actually decided, we will tell you what's confirmed and what's still just reported.

General information, not advice; recommendations become law only once a notification is issued. Position as at 12 October 2026.

This note is general guidance, not tax or legal advice. Positions depend on your specific facts — speak with a partner before acting.