As of June 2023, the parliament has been informed by the Finance Ministry that there are 14,277 pending appeals related to disputed tax demands by the Central GST authorities under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system.
In his written response, Minister Pankaj Chaudhary stated that the establishment of state benches for GST Appellate Tribunals will be implemented gradually, taking into account the states’ requests. The 49th GST Council meeting has already given approval for the formation of these GST Appellate Tribunals.
The minister also informed that as of June 2023, there were 14,227 pending appeals, which represents an increase from the 11,899 appeals that were pending as of March 2023.
The Central Government, from time to time notified the matters relating to the appellate tribunal. Recently, the government has notified the special procedures in filing GST appeals vide notification no. No. 29/2023 – Central Tax S.O. 3423(E) in which it was mentioned that no pre-deposit is required for filing the GST appeals.
Read More: GSTAT: Govt Notifies Special Procedure for filing Appeal, No Pre-Deposit Required
The West Bengal Minister of State for Finance (Independent charge) Chandrima Battacharya has announced that two-GST appellate tribunals will be functional from October 1st 2023. During a media interaction, the minister conveyed that the two benches, constituting a segment of the central appellate tribunal, will be responsible for addressing GST-related matters brought forward by aggrieved parties.
At the moment, taxpayers are resorting to High courts to address disputes with GST authorities regarding tax demands by filing Writ Petitions. In several rulings, judges have explicitly clarified that writ petitions are meant to address violations of fundamental rights.
The Supreme Court and High Courts exerted significant pressure on the Central Government to establish the GST appellate tribunal. Despite the approval of the appellate tribunals by the GST council, it is anticipated that it will take at least 6 months for them to become fully operational.
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