# GST Council removes arrest power, raises prosecution limit to Rs 5 crore 2026-10-08T14:37:33+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The GST Council at its 57th meeting on Thursday, 8 October, approved removing the power of GST officers to arrest taxpayers and raised the prosecution threshold from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore. The general penalty for unspecified violations was cut from Rs 25,000 to Rs 10,000. Refund approvals must now be processed in 10 days instead of 15, with deemed approval if no response is given. No changes were made to GST rates on any product or service. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said all procedural reforms will take effect from 1 April 2027. The Council also decided that rate changes will be considered only once a year, at a dedicated meeting. A committee of officers will examine the issue of input tax credit (ITC) chain liability and report within three months. Two items, MDR on UPI and a faceless system for GST administration, were discussed but not part of the agenda, Sitharaman clarified. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both outlets report the same GST Council decisions, arrest power removed, prosecution threshold raised to Rs 5 crore, general penalty cut to Rs 10,000, refund approval within 10 days, and that no rate changes happened. Aajtak.in leads with the arrest power removal, while Prabhat Khabar adds a separate fact about no demand notice below Rs 10,000 tax. Aajtak.in notes MDR was not discussed, Prabhat Khabar reports two unresolved issues (ITC chain liability, rates committee) and a faceless system announcement. The coverage is uniform neutral reporting on agreed decisions, with the extra notice detail only in one outlet. A committee will report in three months, before the 1 April 2027 implementation deadline. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - aajtak.in (neutral report) Leads with arrest removal, notes MDR not discussed - prabhatkhabar.com (neutral report) Leads with no-notice rule below Rs 10,000 tax This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: CGST Act, GST Council, Nirmala Sitharaman Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/gst-council-removes-arrest-power-raises-prosecution-limit-to-rs-5-crore/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/gst-council-removes-arrest-power-raises-prosecution-limit-to-rs-5-crore/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/