AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1. The 56th GST Council meeting that took place on 03/09/2025 has brought in several appreciable changes such as rate rationalization, setting up of GSTAT etc. Though there are significant developments on GSTAT front, the speed at which these developments are taking place is inadequate when compared with the actual requirements to render justice for the accumulated cases during 01/07/2017 till 31/03/2026.
2. Though the first president of the GSTAT was appointed as early as May 2024 and several members both judicial as well as technical within the principal as well as all the 31 State benches across India have already assumed charge and attending office, the number of e appeals filed in GSTAT portal till date is highly discouraging.
3. As per rough estimates available in public domain as well as seeing the number of writs under article 226 that are decided by various high courts all over India, this estimate of approximately four lakhs cases due for appeal before GSTAT pertaining to the period up to 31/03/2026 is very fair estimate.
4. It is observed that so far only less than 7,000 e appeals have been filed out of which only around 2500 appeals pertain to April 2026. This is happening mainly due to technical glitches in the GSTAT e filing portal. The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry has already taken up this issue with the Finance Minister on 20/03/2026 in an elaborate appeal covering all the glitches connected with GSTAT e filing portal.
5. It is observed that even as on today, none of the issues addressed to the Finance Minister last month has been rectified. It takes huge time for registering as user. Once registered, it is not a simple thing to proceed with filing the appeal as the tutorial video available in the site describes. There is a total contradiction and I experience difficulty to enter appeal filing and struggling at this stage as I do not know how to proceed further.
6. Opening portal was easy. Creation of user name as well as password itself was not simple as you need to enter correct captcha several times which is mostly consisting of O as well as 0, I as well as 1 etc. and when there is a background design consisting of several confusing graphs, it is really a test to your eye power rather than identifying whether it is human or not.
7. After successful login, it went well on continue as well as disclaimer stage. But, once I choose appellant corner and correctly clicked filing, as against two options of appeal filing and application filing, I got only application filing. Even after several attempts and even after using different laptops to ensure that the appeal filing is possible, it is not happening till now.
8. Probably, this could be the reason for such a low number of e filed appeals as on date. It is high time that the Honorable Finance Minister as the Chair Person of GST Council looks on this issue and instruct all concerned to ensure smooth filing of appeals.
9. The fact that it is not going to be an easy task to ensure that all the four lakhs appeals reach the GSTAT in an appropriate manner within the next two months, it is appealed to the Finance Minister on behalf of all taxpayers as well as tax professionals to extend the time limit for filing GSTAT appeal up to 31/12/2026 for all cases pertaining up to 30/06/2026.
10. The prescribed time limit of three months as per section 112 (1) may be implemented with effect from 01/07/2026 after ensuring that the defects identified so far have been duly addressed and the e filing portal becomes user friendly.
11. There are several other issues which require urgent resolution under GST such as issues pertaining to JDA/TDR as well as increased litigation on GST front etc., it is appealed that the next GST Council meeting may be convened during May 2026 itself, as the time gap is crossing eight months.
12. The required awareness amongst all tax professionals on timely filing of appeal before GSTAT wherever it is required so is absent as seen from the e appeals filed so far in GSTAT portal.
13. An article exclusively on the GSTAT Portal system glitches is being submitted shortly as we have to ensure that none of the deserving appeal under Section 112 misses the deadline date 30/06/2026, which has to be extended at least up to 31/12/2026 for reasons covered above.
14. It is concluded by appealing to the Finance Minister to address the most important three issues of user friendly GSTAT e filing portal, adequate time to ensure all deserving appeals reaches the GSTAT and to convene the next GST Council meeting during May 2026 to ensure the grievances of taxpayers. It is hoped that next council meeting takes place shortly and all issues discussed above are promptly resolved soon.