The 45th meeting of the GST Council was held in Lucknow under the chairpersonship of Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman and focused on a wide range of people-centric and reform-oriented measures. The Council approved significant GST relief on life-saving and COVID-19 related medicines, including exemption of GST on Zolgensma and Viltepso imported for personal use and extension of concessional GST rates on key COVID-19 treatment drugs up to 31 December 2021, along with reduction of GST from 12 percent to 5 percent on several additional medicines such as Keytruda used in cancer treatment. To support social welfare and sustainability goals, GST rates were reduced on fortified rice kernels supplied under government schemes and on retrofitment kits for vehicles used by persons with disabilities. The Council also recommended rationalisation of GST rates on various goods, corrections to inverted duty structures in footwear and textiles to be implemented from January 2022, and clarified that specified petroleum products would remain outside the GST ambit for the time being. On services, several exemptions and rate changes were approved, including extension of export-related transport exemptions, changes in taxation of e-commerce operator–supplied services, and withdrawal of certain exemptions to ensure parity and revenue balance. In addition, the Council recommended multiple legal and procedural reforms to simplify compliance, ease input tax credit provisions, strengthen technology-driven enforcement, and reduce litigation, along with the constitution of two Groups of Ministers to examine inverted duty structures and further use of technology for compliance improvement.