GST Council introduced Amnesty Scheme for filing appeals against demand orders where appeals could not be filed on time

The 52nd meeting of the GST Council was chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, New Delhi, today i.e 7th October 2023.

Along with the Union Finance Minister, Union Minister of State for Finance Shri. Pankaj Chaudhary, Chief Ministers of Goa and Meghalaya, besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs (with legislature) and Senior officers from Union Government and States also attended the meeting.

The Council has recommended providing an amnesty scheme through a special procedure under section 148 of CGST Act, 2017 for taxable persons, who could not file an appeal under section 107 of the said Act, against the demand order under section 73 or 74 of CGST Act, 2017 passed on or before the 31st day of March, 2023, or whose appeal against the said order was rejected solely on the grounds that the said appeal was not filed within the time period specified in sub-section (1) of section 107.

In all such cases, filing of appeal by the taxpayers will be allowed against such orders upto 31st January 2024, subject to the condition of payment of an amount of pre-deposit of 12.5% of the tax under dispute, out of which at least 20% (i.e. 2.5% of the tax under dispute) should be debited from Electronic Cash Ledger.

This will facilitate a large number of taxpayers, who could not file appeals in the past within the specified time period.