A set of decisions taken at the 55th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting on Saturday is expected to address Kerala’s grievances regarding Integrated GST (IGST), Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal’s office said.

The meeting, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Jaisalmer, decided to ensure that bills for online services specifically mention the State where the consumer is located.

When traders fail to specify the destination of the service in bills related to interstate transactions, the State where the consumption took place stood to lose out on tax revenue. The GST Council decision is expected to offer a solution to this problem.

Kerala has been demanding greater accuracy in matters related to IGST, which is levied by the Union government, and then settled between the Centre and the State governments.

Further, the committee on IGST settlement has submitted recommendations for ensuring greater clarity and precision in the settlement process. This measure is expected to benefit Kerala.

In July, the Kerala Public Expenditure Review Committee had stressed the need for Kerala to pay close attention to the IGST mechanism, observing that the existing system actually works towards revenue loss for the State.