Lok Sabha on Friday cleared changes in the Finance Bill to pave the way for setting up of an appellate tribunal for resolution of disputes under GST.
Currently, taxpayers are filing writ petitions before high courts in the absence of the appellate tribunal.
As per the amendments proposed in the Finance Bill 2023, which was passed by Lok Sabha on Friday, benches of the GST Appellate Tribunal would be set up in every state while there will be a principal bench in Delhi which will hear appeals related to 'place of supply'.
Even after more than five years of implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the appellate tribunal has not been set up. As a result, unresolved legal matters under GST have accumulated.
Last month, the 49th GST Council meeting accepted the report of a panel of state ministers on appellate tribunals with some modifications.
Currently, taxpayers aggrieved with ruling of tax authorities are required to move high courts. The resolution process takes longer time as high courts are already burdened with backlog of cases and do not have a specialised bench to deal with GST cases.
Setting up of state and national level benches would pave the way for faster dispute resolution.
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