Apart from several industry-specific measures, a few of which will kick in with retrospective effect, the Council also opted to waive interest and penalty on tax dues for the first three years of GST, provided they are paid by March 2025. Moreover, it lowered the stipulated pre-deposits for filing appeals, including those that will be filed with the upcoming GST Appellate Tribunals, and approved a new form for taxpayers to correct errors or oversights in previous returns. Beyond nitty-gritties, the Council also signed off on ending the anti-profiteering clause that required firms to pass on any tax cut gains to customers, and mandating biometric-based Aadhaar authentication for all GST registrations in a phased manner across India. The former will quell a difficult-to-implement industry irritant, and one hopes the latter will effectively ease the registration process that some say has become cumbersome in recent times, while curbing fraud perpetrated through fake invoicing. The ground-level impact of these moves may depend on the fine print that may follow, but the intent to simplify and declutter the seven-year old indirect tax regime is clear. It is refreshing that the Council also plans to take stock of the 2021 plan to rationalise the multiple-rate GST structure, that has been in cold storage for a while, when it meets next. The apex GST body must not only revive and expedite GST rate reforms but also incorporate a road map to bring excluded items such as petroleum and electricity into the GST net while rejigging tax rates.