NEW DELHI: India will exempt small businesses with annual sales of up to Rs 40 lakh ($56,701) from paying taxes under a national sales tax, the finance minister said on Thursday. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday chaired the 32nd meeting of the goods and services tax (GST) Council. Here are the key announcements made:

1. Composition scheme threshold raised to Rs 1.5 crore from April 1

2. Under service tax scheme, there was no composition scheme.
In services Rs 50 lakhs eligible for services. The composition rate is approved to be 6%, which is lower than average tax being paid by those under the Rs 50-lakh limit.

3. Businesses availing GST Composition Scheme to file just one annual return, pay taxes once every quarter

4. Two types of exemption limit now: i) Turnover of Rs 40 lakh for those earlier in Rs 20-lakh bracket ii) Turnover of Rs 20 lakh for those earlier in Rs 10 lakh bracket. This will help more than 2 million small businesses, according to the revenue secretary

5. GST Council allows Kerala to impose 1 per cent cess on intra-state sales for up to 2 years

6. Group of Ministers constituted to consider GST on real estate, lottery after differences of opinion in GST Council