Centre Notifies GST Appellate Tribunal Rules for Mandating E-Filing

The Centre recently unveiled GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) rules for speedy settlement of GST cases. The new regulations provide for e-filing of applications and enable hybrid hearings, where both in-person and remote participation will be allowed.

According to the new guidelines, all urgent applications received before noon will be fixed for a hearing on the following working day, if they are complete. The GSTAT benches will work from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM and 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM, and administrative offices will work from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM on all working days.

The regulations, comprising 15 organised chapters, provide procedures for lodging appeals, hearing cases, and facilitating the resolution of cases in a timely manner. These steps are likely to increase confidence among taxpayers and bring India's indirect tax litigation framework into the modern era.

Justice (Retd) Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, ex-Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court, was appointed as the inaugural president of the GSTAT in May last year. The GSTAT, as per the Central Goods and Services Tax Act of 2017, is the appellate authority for a host of appeals relating to GST cases. It consists of a chairman bench in New Delhi and 31 state benches in the nation, with the appointment of judicial and technical members already in process. The tribunal is set to offer quick and just decisions for GST disputes, thus relieving higher courts of the burden.