Certain clarifications and confirmations for the future start of the functioning of the GST appellate tribunals have been made by Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra. Between taxpayers and the tax system, the tribunal is to address the problems and is gearing up to initiate its proceedings in July or August.
Mr. Malhotra is feeling positive about this, saying, “The process has been initiated. Very soon, you are going to see an advertisement in the media for the process of selection of the members and the president. And we hope that, quickly, in a period of six months or so from now, we are able to put some of the tribunals in place,”
31 benches in about 50 places are all set up for action, and the goal is to have most of them working by July or August. Emphasized by Mr Malhotra how urgent it is specifying that the start of such tribunals matches the time if the new government takes over.
Back when the GST system was incorporated in 2017. The plan consists of making the appellate tribunals manage the petition, however they never got initiated. The assessee who was in dispute initiated a proceeding to the High Courts for assistance. There were about 15,000 appeals by October 31, under central GST laws – that’s 25% more compared to the cases waiting since March 31 of the previous year.
To make these tribunals revisions were made to the central GST law in July. The Finance Ministry conveyed the information about 31 tribunals coming up across 28 States and eight Union Territories in September. By December 2023 or January 2024, people thought the first set of these courts would be initiated by December 2023 or January 2024.
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There were certain problems with who could be in these tribunals and how old they must be. It does not match what the Tribunal Reforms Act of 2021 stated. The GST dept approved the revisions in October and in December during Parliament’s winter session, such amendments became official.
The Central Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill was approved by the parliament dated December 20, 2023, making the way for the formation of the GSTAT. The bill surges the maximum age limit for the GSTAT president to 70 years and for its members to 67 years.
67 years is the age limit that has been set for the president and 65 years for the members. The bills have a motive to synchronize the Central GST Act with the provisions summarized in the Tribunal Reforms Act of 2021.
As per the legislation, an advocate must secure 10 years of experience in managing litigation related to indirect taxes in an appellate tribunal that meets the criteria for eligibility to serve as a judicial member of the GSTAT.
