GSTAT to begin hearing by the end of December, appeals can be filed by Sept end

After a long wait, the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) will start accepting appeals by the end of this month. Hearings will begin by the end of December, as recommended by the GST Council. Additionally, GSTAT will double up as National Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling.

GSTAT has been constituted under Section 109 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, which provides for its constitution as the second appellate authority within the GST framework. While the original adjudication and the first appeal happens through individual officers under the Act, the second appeal — against the orders of the first appellate authorities under the Central as well as State tax administration — lies with the GSTAT. The GSTAT has been given the responsibility to hear appeals under all the four GST laws passed by Central as well as State officers. Therefore, this is the first forum at which the adjudication process converges under all GST laws and across all tax administrations.

In its meeting on September 3, the Council recommended June as the cut-off date for filing backlog appeals. Under section 112(1) of the CGST Act, the orders issued under section 107 or section 108 of the CGST Act or SGST Act or the UTGST Act may be appealed to the GSTAT, within three months from the date of the order. According to officials, a date is imperative to be notified to serve as a limitation for filing of the legacy appeals otherwise, the appeals would get restricted only to those taxpayers who received the order within last three months. “Taxpayers should be given adequate time to address the significant backlog of filings,” one official said.

Further, notifying separate date for separate class of cases and separate benches may not be convenient for the taxpayers and may also be difficult to manage in the IT system. Therefore, a single date needs to be identified. Keeping this in mind, a uniform date has been recommended. It may be noted that taxpayers were facing various challenges due to a delay in the constitution of the GSTAT. Because of this taxpayers had to approach High Courts for the resolution of high-stake GST disputes. Resulting in higher litigation costs for the taxpayers and added to the burden of the judiciary.

The Council has now recommended issuing a notification stating that Section 109(8) of CGST Act provides that the appeals, where the tax or input tax credit involved or the amount of fine, fee or penalty does not exceed Rs 50 lakhs, and which does not involve any question of law may be heard by a single member, and in all other cases, shall be heard together by one Judicial member and one Technical Member.

The Finance Ministry hopes all steps for opertionalisation of GSTAT will significantly strengthen the institutional framework of GST by providing a robust mechanism for dispute resolution, ensuring consistency in advance rulings, and offering greater certainty to taxpayers. “This will further enhance trust, transparency, and ease of doing business under the GST regime,” it said.

Published on September 7, 2025