GST Council gives green signal to establishment of appellate tribunal

New Delhi, Feb 20 (KNN) The 49th meeting of GST council held in New Delhi on Saturday accepted the Group of Ministers’ (GoM) recommendations on long pending constitution of GST appellate tribunal in the country with some modifications.

The GoM has recommended one tribunal with the principal bench in Delhi and as many other benches to be located in the states depending on the business density there.

The meeting held under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also agreed to reduce the Goods and Service Tax on liquid jaggery, pencil sharpeners, and certain tracking devices.

The council also decided to immediately release compensation cess dues to states totalling over Rs 33,500 crore.

This includes the pending dues of Rs 16,982 crore to 23 states for June 2022, the last month of the five-year compensation period, as well as another Rs 16,524 crore as final GST compensation outgoes for six states that have submitted the respective accountant general certificates.

Addressing the media after the council meet, the finance minister said, “since there is no amount in the GST compensation fund, the Centre has decided to release this amount from its own resources and the same will be recouped from future compensation cess collections.”

FM Sitharaman further said the GST Council has decided to rationalise late fees on filing of annual GST returns after the due date.

Speaking regarding the GST Tribunal, revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra pointed out that The GST Tribunal will have one principal bench in New Delhi and as many benches or boards in states as decided by each state, subject to approval of the council.

“The principal bench and state boards would have two technical and two judicial members each, with equal representation from the Centre and states. But all four members would not sit for hearing each case, which is likely to be decided based on the threshold or value of dues involved,” he said.

The GST council meeting was attended by Finance ministers of states and UTs (with legislature) and senior officials of Union Government and state governments.  (KNN Bureau)