The Finance Ministry has issued a fresh notification regarding constitution of the Principal and State Benches of the GST Appellate Tribunal, adding circuits and locations. The notification will have deemed effect from September 1, 2023.
The new notification will supersede two previous notifications (one issued in September 2023 and other in December 2024) and has added a new column ‘sitting/circuit’. It reiterates constituting the Principal Bench of the GSTAT at New Delhi. Also, there will be 31 benches in States, 63 judicial members and 33 Technical Members for the Centre and States together. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra (along with Goa) will have three Benches each, while other larger States, such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu (along with Puducherry) will have two benches each.
Now, the new notification says locations shown as ‘Circuit’ will be operational in such manner as the President may order, depending upon the number of appeals filed by suppliers in the respective States/ jurisdiction. For example, Panaji, Puducherry, Aizawl, Agartala and Kohima have been designated as circuits, along with Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata as locations. Also, the additional sitting associated with the Bench will be operated by one Judicial Member and one Technical Member, it added. For example, Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Hissar, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Thane, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Prayagraj and Agra will have sittings.
The Government has already appointed retired Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra as President of GSTAT. The Principal Bench will take up matters related to inter-State disputes, while Benches in States will take up all other issues, including rates. The aggrieved parties can move to the High Courts and Supreme Court.
GST Tribunals are envisioned as specialised bodies to handle disputes related to GST, providing a timely and efficient resolution mechanism. However, several legal, administrative and constitutional challenges have contributed to the delay in their establishment. GST Tribunals are essential for resolving tax matters because they provide an impartial, expert, and efficient forum for addressing tax disputes. They play a crucial role in ensuring fairness, accountability, and the rule of law in tax administration. It is said that setting up 31 benches in all major cities across the country will help resolve tax disputes and reduce the strain on jurisdictional High Courts.
Industry feels that in the absence of these tribunals, businesses had to approach the High Courts, which, in general, proved to be a long-drawn process and costly affair, while also adding pressure on already overburdened High Courts. The number of appeals against the orders of first Appellate Authorities has been rising sharply and moved up by more than double from 5,499 in 2020-21 to 11,899 cases in 2022-23.