new delhi may 4 the gst council today veered around to giving up to rs 100 incentive for digital payments for purchases by consumers approved a new model for single monthly return and decided to turn the gstn into a governmentowned entity the panel the highest decisionmaking body for goods and services tax gst regime however deferred a decision on levying a cess on sugar after opposition from some states announcing the decision taken at the 27th meeting of the council finance minister arun jaitley said all taxpayers excluding a few exceptions like composition dealers shall file one monthly gst return in place of multiple filings currently required in a month return filing dates shall be staggered based on the turnover of the registered person to manage load on the it system composition dealers and dealers having nil transaction shall have facility to file quarterly return finance secretary hasmukh adhia said the monthly return filing system will come into force in six months and the present system of filing of return through gstr 3b and gstr 1 forms would continue for not more than six months the council at its 27th meeting also referred the issue of incentivising digital payments to a group of state finance ministers after some states wanted a negative list most member states on the panel were agreeable to the proposal of giving a concession of 2 per cent in gst rate where the tax rate is 3 per cent or more on businesstoconsumer b2c supplies for which payment is made through cheque or digital mode subject to a ceiling of rs 100 per transaction so as to incentivise promotion of digital payments but since some states wanted a small negative list the issue will be referred to a fivemember group of state finance ministers jaitley said a separate group of ministers would go into the issue of levy of cess on sugar and reduction of gst on ethanol while the cost of sugar production is over rs 35 per kg the market price is around rs 2628 a kg he said adding cane growers are in deep distress and a proposal to levy a cess was made to help them now since this suggestion has been made after the gst has been implemented he said referring to gst rollout from july 1 last year where a cess on top of gst rate was imposed only on luxury and demerit goods like cigarettes and highend cars to make up a kitty to compensate states for their losses due to implementation of the new tax regime collections from a similar cess on sugar could be used for helping farmers it was proposed how are such contingencies to be addressed in the gst regime are they to be addressed by imposition of cess or are they to be addressed by temporarily increasing the tax or by some alternative method of revenue raising jaitley said referring to discussion at the council meeting the group of ministers would make