GST Council's 57th Meeting Clears Next-Gen Process Reforms

The correct answer is the 57th meeting. The backgrounder states that the process reforms covering registration, return filing, refunds, input tax credit and dispute resolution were recommended at the 57th meeting of the GST Council, held in October 2026. Option B, the 56th meeting, is wrong because that meeting dealt with rates rather than process: it replaced the earlier four-tier structure with two main rates of 5 and 18 per cent, keeping a special 40 per cent rate for a select list of goods and services. Option A, the 55th meeting, is wrong because the paper nowhere credits it with these recommendations. Option D, the 58th meeting, is wrong because it had not been held when the paper was issued on 9 October 2026. A useful way to remember the pair is that the 56th Council simplified rates and the 57th Council simplified procedure.

The correct answer is 1.70 crore. The backgrounder records that the taxpayer base widened from roughly 60 lakh when the tax began to about 1.70 crore in September 2026, which is close to a threefold increase over nine years. Option A, 60 lakh, is wrong because that was the count in 2017, the year GST was introduced, and not the current figure. Options B and D, 1.20 crore and 2.50 crore, are wrong because neither number appears anywhere in the paper; they are plausible-looking values placed to test whether a candidate recalls the exact total. Two companion figures are worth memorising with it: the network had handled 3,053 crore invoice uploads and 833.82 crore e-way bills as on 30 September 2026, and gross collections for April to September 2026 were close to ₹12.46 lakh crore.

The correct answer is 10 days. One of the measures meant to speed up refunds is a shorter acknowledgement window: the period comes down from 15 days to 10 days, and where no response is issued within it the claim is treated as acknowledged by deeming. Option C, 15 days, is wrong because that is the older period being replaced, a classic trap that rewards reading the direction of the change. Options A and D, 7 days and 30 days, are wrong because no such period is proposed in the paper. Along with the shorter window, the reforms make refunds of surplus cash ledger balances automatic and expect about 90 per cent of a claim to be sanctioned on the system's own risk assessment, for claims arising from zero-rated supplies and from the inverted duty structure.

The correct answer is ₹5 crore. To build a trust-based tax system while keeping a deterrent against fraud, the Council recommended lifting the prosecution threshold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore and withdrawing certain powers of arrest under GST. Option A, ₹1 crore, is wrong because that is the old threshold being raised, not the new one. Options B and D, ₹2 crore and ₹10 crore, are wrong because neither figure is mentioned in the recommendations. Related numbers from the same set are worth learning together: no show cause notice will be issued where the tax involved is below ₹10,000, the maximum general penalty falls from ₹25,000 to ₹10,000, the minimum penalty of ₹10,000 goes in non-fraud cases, and a reduced penalty of 5 per cent applies when tax and interest are paid within the time allowed after the adjudication order.