Goods and service tax appellate tribunal. Part four.

It is more that 25,000 e appeals which have been filed so far and out of this more than 13,000 filed during the current month. Till now no system glitches and the portal is accepting the e appeals. So far so good but when are we going to cross six digits and when are we going to ensure that all deserving appeals have been filed before the Tribunal ?. This is most important question as the rough estimate of number of e appeals due for filing before GSTAT is around 5,00,000 if not more. With around 1.50 crore active GST registrations and SCN being issued based on differences in GST returns as well as on denial of ITC under Section 17 (5), 50,000 appeals per annum seems to be inevitable. The Government has accordingly set up the benches with required number of members as well. The GSTAT portal has proved that it is capable of accepting even 1,000 appeals on a single day.

The question is, whether is this sufficient ?. With hardly five clear days including holidays for the legacy cases, are we going to file more than 10,000 appeals per day in the days to come?. Will the portal work fine for 24 hours on all seven days to accept any number of appeals?. The statistics as on 30.06/2026 at 24.00 hours shall reveal the answer for the above questions. It appears that the consequences of non -filing the appeal before GSTAT well within time even after making the required pre deposit is not properly explained to the taxpayers. This is a very serious situation wherein hardly three months are within the powers of GSTAT for condonation and that too with sufficient cause for such delay. It is expected that the benches all over India may be lenient during the year 2026 in condoning the delays which are within their powers of three months. However, even if there is a slight delay beyond three months from the stipulated date of filing the appeal before GSTAT, chances are much for rejection of appeal by GSTAT based on limitation.

The powers which the high courts in India exercise in condoning the delay based on the facts and circumstances of the individual cases may not be available with GSTAT. Moreover, the deadline was fixed as 30/06/2026 for all orders passed in first appeal or revision up to 31/03/2026 on 17/09/2025 itself and the GSTAT may take a stand that the appeal was open for filing for the past nine months and the taxpayer has not properly acted during such a long period of nine months as normal limit is only three months.

The moment the appeal before GSTAT is rejected either based on merits or based on limitation, the stay on recovery of balance GST is vacated automatically and at that stage knocking the doors of High Court on stay may not work. Hence, all tax professionals may take complete stock of all OIA passed till 31/03/2026 and prefer the second appeal before GSTAT as soon as possible and in case of filing beyond 01/07/2026, it attracts a fee of Rs.5,000 along with proper justifications for such delay. In case the deadline of 30/09/2026 is also not met, the GST as confirmed in the OIA becomes payable in full along with interest as well as applicable penalty under section 73 or 74 as the case may be.

The purpose of reiteration of these points is not to threaten but for creating awareness. During January to March, there was huge expectations amongst all concerned that there was a possibility for extension in time which was initially fixed as 30/06/2026. Except for the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries which made a detailed representation directly to the Finance Minister on 20/03/2026 seeking removal of system issues in the GSTAT portal, it appears that other trade bodies such as FICCI, CII, PHDCI etc. have not properly taken up this issue for resolution. Even as on today, it may be possible to avoid the serious consequences as discussed above by acting immediately and by ensuring that the appeals are filed as quickly as possible. The condonation of delay has more chances for positive consideration in case it is only a few days and not in months.

Those taxpayers who have still not made the second pre deposit as required under section 112 may do make the payment today itself as payment of required pre deposit as well as applicable court fees are a must before filing the second appeal. The purpose of writing this series is to spread the message on consequences so that all concerned may take the best advantage of the month July 2026 to ensure that appeals are filed in all deserving cases.