TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
As per the extant provision contained in sub-section 1 of section 112 of the CGST Act, 2017 only the GST Council has the powers to recommend any extension in due dates for filing the second appeal. As on 29/06/2026, as the previous council meeting took place on 02/09/2025 and there was no official announcement on the next GST Council meeting, I assumed that only the mercy of the benches of GSTAT on leniency in condoning the delay of the first three months during 01/07/2026 till 30/09/2026 could save the taxpayer. However, the surprise came on 30/06/2026 in the morning. The step taken for extension of time originally kept due date as 30/06/2026 to 31/07/2026 was a welcome step as GSTAT portal had some glitches in the initial period and the taxpayers were also having several issues.
Be that as it may, it was nice to have the extension as more and more appeals could be filed in GSTAT portal during the next three weeks. It is cautioned to all taxpayers as well as tax professionals that any further extension is completely ruled out as GST council may not do the same exercise for the third time and neither the Tribunal nor the Government has the absolute power to do it. As the present time limit is approximately 3 weeks only, all may concentrate on immediate filing of the second appeal wherever the same is required without waiting for the last few days.
As far as payment of second 10% as pre deposit for filing the second appeal is concerned, taxpayers who face liquidity have to some how sort it out as non- filing of second appeal in time may warrant payment of entire 90 % sooner or later, which in my view must be avoided by even borrowing the required amount to meet out the pre deposit requirement so as to keep the damages to the minimum extent possible.
This is more so because once the required pre deposit for filing the second appeal is paid and the appeal is duly filed, there is an automatic stay on the remaining 80% amount whereas, in case the deadline for filing the GSTAT appeal is missed (including the available condonation period of three months), the entire tax as determined under section 107 becomes due for payment along with applicable interest as well as penalty and the GST officials may attach the bank account for which even any prior intimation to the taxpayer is not expected.
To put it the other way, the next few days up to 31/07/2026 are golden period for taxpayer as well as tax professionals who have deserving appeals before the GSTAT as it is observed that not even one third of the required appeals are filed when the article is published whereas we have to file two times the same number of appeals within the next three weeks. There is absolutely no point in criticizing anything as nothing is in taxpayer control and once the deadline is crossed, it becomes essential for the taxpayer as to how he was prevented from timely filing in order to justify any condonation.
There are several requirements in filing the GSTAT appeal which are to be done in a systematic manner and who are filing the appeal for the first time in the portal may later realize that it took more time than it was expected to take. Accordingly, to be on a safer side, presume the last date as 20/07/2026 and work accordingly so that any untoward difficulties that may arise during filing could be easily overcome.
It is quite unfortunate that taxpayers are not fully sensitized on this issue of strict adherence to time lines which is evident from the low number of appeals filed in GSTAT portal till now. Hence in order to ensure that the purposes of setting up 30 plus benches all over India, with a full strength of around 60 judicial members, 30 technical members from State and 30 technical members from Centre are fully achieved, a minimum of 1,50,000/ appeals must be filed as well as accepted by the GSTAT for the cases pertaining to the legacy period which now ends on 30/04/2026.
In case of several appeals due as on date, it is suggested to go by the order of high value, medium value and low value as the preference to ensure that the maximum value is protected. This point is reiterated as the chances are more for accepting the condonation of delay application by the benches during August, September as well as October as the condonation being sought is not because of inadequate time of three months (which is applicable only for cases where orders under section 107 are passed on or after 01/05/2026) as the window for filing the appeal in GSTAT portal was open since 01/12/2025 onwards and one can -not argue now that the period of eight months was not sufficient.
This article is being concluded by thanking all the concerned organizations as well as the Government and the GSTAT who made it possible to extend the time by one month in the interest of Justice to the taxpayers. Now it is the turn of the taxpayer as well as tax professionals to ensure that the required appeals are correctly filed in the GSTAT portal latest by 20/07/2026, assuming the last date to be 20/07/2026 to avoid any last minute rush.