GST Council meeting likely to be held in Feb to take up issue of setting up GST Tribunal

The establishment of appellate tribunals is expected to be discussed at a Goods and Services Tax Council meeting later this month.

The meeting will take place around February 18 although the exact day has not yet been determined, according to insiders. Following the presentation of the Union Budget, the Council normally holds one meeting.

The establishment of the GST appellate tribunals would be the main agenda item. The report on online gambling that was submitted by a Group of Ministers is also anticipated to be discussed by the Council.

The creation of appellate tribunals for GST is a top priority in light of the enormous volume of open cases. It will be implemented as soon as possible, according to another source.

After a six-month hiatus, the GST Council, which is presided over by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, last convened on December 17.

It had at the time defined the rates for a number of commodities, but it was unable to take up important reports pertaining to the creation of the appellate tribunals, determining the taxation of online gaming, horse racing, and casinos, as well as the taxation of tobacco and gutkha enterprises.

Due to the short amount of time, which was cited by several state finance ministers, the meeting was adjourned early.

The industry, which presently needs to file appeals against decisions with the high courts and deal with lengthy delays in the conclusion of such cases, has made the prompt establishment of a GST appellate tribunal one of its top priorities.

It is believed that the GOM study, which was led by Dushyant Chautala, the deputy chief minister of Haryana, recommended establishing a primary bench in New Delhi. States will also have local benches installed.

Up to five seats may be placed in larger states, depending on population, according to the paper, which was reportedly filed in August of last year. A senior tax official serving as the technical member would be one of two members on each regional bench.

The Center may take up revisions to the Central GST Act in the second half of the Budget Session of Parliament after the GST Council approves the proposal. The CGST Act will be changed to establish uniform bench types throughout the board, with the major bench located in New Delhi and housing the president of the tribunal.