CGST (Amendment) Act, 2018 (No. 31 of 2018)
Effective 1 February 2019. Revised the definitions of “services” and “business,” reworked several Input Tax Credit (ITC) conditions, adjusted registration and refund provisions, and clarified the adjudicating authority framework.
Finance Act, 2021
Amended Section 7 to retrospectively clarify that supplies between a club/association and its members are taxable (treating them as distinct persons). Tightened Section 16 so ITC could only be claimed to the extent it appeared in the supplier-reported GSTR-2B/2A statement — the change that made GSTR-2B the effective source of truth for ITC. Also removed the mandatory CA/CMA GST audit certification requirement, allowing self-certification instead.
CGST (Amendment) Act, 2023 (No. 30 of 2023)
Effective 1 October 2023. Brought online gaming, casinos, and horse racing within GST as “specified actionable claims,” taxed on full face value. Introduced the statutory framework for the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT).
Finance Act, 2024 amendments
Brought into force in two tranches — 27 September 2024 and 1 November 2024 — via Notification No. 17/2024-Central Tax.
ITC time-limit relief
New Section 16(5) allowed claiming ITC on invoices for FY 2017-18 to FY 2020-21 up to 30 November 2021. New Section 16(6) gave a 30-day ITC window after a cancelled registration is revoked.
New Section 74A
Unified the notice/demand timeline previously split across Sections 73 (non-fraud) and 74 (fraud) for periods from FY 2024-25 onwards, and extended the reduced-penalty payment window from 30 to 60 days.
Lower appeal pre-deposits
Appellate Authority pre-deposit cap cut from ₹25 crore to ₹20 crore (each of CGST/SGST). GSTAT pre-deposit cut from 20% to 10%, capped at ₹20 crore.
Section 128A amnesty
Waived interest and penalty on Section 73 demands for FY 2017-18 to FY 2019-20, provided the tax demand was paid by 31 March 2025.
Also: Section 109 expanded GSTAT’s remit to anti-profiteering cases; Section 9 exempted GST on extra neutral alcohol/rectified spirit used for alcoholic liquor manufacture; new Section 11A let the government waive recovery of under-levied GST arising from a genuinely prevalent trade practice; Section 70 allowed an authorised representative to appear for a summons on the taxpayer’s behalf.
Finance Act, 2025 amendments
Mostly effective 1 April 2025.
- Section 38 revised to enable the Invoice Management System (IMS) for accepting/rejecting/pending supplier invoices before they affect ITC.
- Input Service Distributors (ISD) permitted to pay tax under reverse charge and distribute ITC for inter-state common input services.
- New Section 122B introduced penalties tied to a “Track and Trace” mechanism for unique identification marking on specified goods.
- Recipients required to reverse ITC when a supplier issues a credit note reducing the original supply value.
- 10% pre-deposit mandated for appeals against demands that are penalty-only (no tax in dispute).
Notification No. 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate)
Effective 22 September 2025 — the “GST 2.0” rate rationalization. Not an amendment to the Act’s operative sections, but a wholesale replacement of the rate schedule. See the GST Rate Search tool and its notification list for details.
A note on scope
This is a summary of the headline changes, compiled from public GST alerts and CBIC notifications, not a substitute for the amended statutory text. The individual section pages on this site (linked from the Download page’s index) still show the Act as originally enacted in 2017 — always verify against the current CBIC-published Act text before relying on a specific section for a compliance decision.