GST Council October 2026: who is affected and six steps to take now

57th GST Council meeting: ERP and billing changes to plan for

The GST Council met for the 57th time on 8 October 2026 in New Delhi. Its recommendations cover e-invoicing, returns, refunds and registration. They are recommendations, not law yet, and most have no effective date. Still, several of them will change what finance and IT teams need from their ERP and billing software once they are notified.

Who should pay attention

  • Businesses with turnover of Rs 5 crore or more that pay reverse charge GST on purchases from unregistered suppliers or on imported services, such as software subscriptions or foreign consultancy.
  • Every regular taxpayer who files GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B.
  • Exporters and businesses with an inverted duty structure that claim refunds.
  • Sellers on e-commerce marketplaces who keep goods in the operator's warehouse in other states.

Six steps to take now

  1. Read the PIB release of 8 October 2026 with your finance head and tax adviser.
  2. List reverse charge and import of services transactions from the last six months and note how they are recorded.
  3. Check that purchases are tagged as inputs, input services or capital goods.
  4. Compare GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and GSTR-2B for recent months and write down why they differ.
  5. Ask your ERP or billing vendor how and when they will support the changes, and whether updates are covered by your support contract.
  6. Watch CBIC and GST portal updates and confirm the final rules with your adviser.

This is a planning summary, not tax or legal advice.

Read the full breakdown with the recommendation table here: 57th GST Council: What Your ERP and Billing Must Change

Published by Affix Center, a Mumbai-based IT services company that builds business software and GST system integrations. More about our software product engineering work.

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