Government Notifies Appointment of Key Members to GST Appellate Tribunal:

Government Notifies Appointment of Key Members to GST Appellate Tribunal The central government has announced the appointment of judicial and technical members to the Tribunal's Principal Bench and State Benches across the country. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), after taking suggestions from the Department of Revenue, gave approval to many important appointments within the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT). These appointments cover both the main Principal Bench in New Delhi and 31 benches across different states. With this step, the GSTAT is now much closer to starting to hear appeals related to GST.

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The GSTAT was set up under Section 109 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, to resolve disputes regarding GST assessments and appellate orders issued by tax authorities. The government has officially announced major appointments to the Principal Bench of the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) in New Delhi. Here are the key persons:

• A. Venu Prasad, a retired IAS officer, has been appointed as the Technical Member (State). He will serve for four years or until he turns 67, whichever comes first.

• Anil Kumar Gupta, a retired IRS officer from the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre, will work as the Technical Member (Centre) under the same service terms.

• Justice (Retd) Mayank Kumar Jain, former Judge of the Allahabad High Court, will work as the Judicial Member of the Principal Bench.

All three appointed persons will receive a monthly salary of Rs 2,25,000 and will officially take charge once the formal notification is issued. The functional GSTAT would help in resolving outstanding GST Disputes. The tax experts have noted that the appointment of judicial and Centre-level technical members is a significant step in operationalising the GSTAT. One of the tax experts stated that the remaining steps, such as pending State nominations for technical members and establishing infrastructure, must now be completed to make the GSTAT functional. Tax Experts have suggested that just appointing the members is not sufficient to make the GSTAT fully ready. To make it a success, both the Centre and states must focus on setting up full infrastructure, such as hiring administrative and legal support staff, setting up video conferencing systems, finalising office space for state benches, etc.

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The Standing Committee on Finance had also raised an issue regarding the delay in making the GSTAT fully operational. The committee has requested the Ministry of Finance to make the process fast by setting time bounds for completing appointments and infrastructure. According to the Committee's report, only a few states, including Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Bihar, and Maharashtra/Goa, have sent their suggestions for appointments. The rest of the states have still not formed their Search-cum-Selection Committees.