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Even job work under manufacturing will be allowed in the composition scheme.

The other members of the panel are Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, and Chhattisgarh Minister of Commercial Taxes Amar Agrawal. The recommendations will be placed before the GST Council in its meeting in Guwahati on November 10.

The GoM, constituted by the Council, has suggested allowing interstate sales for composition dealers.

“The GST is one nation, one tax. Hence, dealers should be allowed to make interstate sales,” said Sarma.

It also decided that restaurants outside the composition scheme — both AC and non-AC — must continue to get input tax credit even if their GST rate was reduced from 18 per cent to 12 per cent.

“We feel that restaurants must continue to get input tax credit. The rates in that case will be decided by the Council, considering the revenue implications,” said Sarma.

However, the panel could not work out a consensus over allowing input tax credit for business-to-business transactions under the composition scheme. The Council will decide the issue.

To date, 1.5 million registered entities, amounting to a sixth of 8.9 million GST assessees, have opted for the composition scheme so far. The Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had raised the eligibility threshold for the composition scheme to ~1 crore, from ~75 lakh. The new window will be available till March 31. A composition dealer needs to furnish one return, i.e., GSTR-4, on a quarterly basis, and an annual return, Form GSTR-9A, as against three forms every month by a normal taxpayer. Besides, there is no requirement of invoice-wise details or Harmonised System of Nomenclature codes in their returns. The scheme is not available for manufacturers of tobacco and tobacco substitutes, paan masala, and ice cream.