NATIONAL GOODS AND SERVICES TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL

Section 2(9) of Model Goods and Services Tax Act, 2016 (‘Act’ for short) defines the phrase, ‘Appellate Tribunal’ as the National Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal constituted under Section 100.

Appeal to the Appellate Tribunal in this act is the second stage of the appeal.  Section 101(1) of the Act provides that any person aggrieved by an order passed against him Section 98 or Section 99 of the Act may appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such order within three months from the date on which the order sought to be appealed against is communicated to the person preferring the appeal.

Section 98 provides for the appeals to first appellate authority.  Section 98 (1) provides that any person aggrieved any decision or order passed against him under this Act by an adjudicating authority, may appeal to the prescribed First Appellate Authority within three months from the date on which the said decision or order is communicated to such person.

Section 99(1) empowers the Chief Commissioner or Commissioner for revision of orders of adjudicating authority subordinate to him.   This section provides that the Chief Commissioner or Commissioner may on his own motion, or upon information received by him or on request from the Commissioner of SGST/CGST, call for and examine the record of any proceeding, and if he considers that any decision or order passed under this Act by any officer subordinate to him is erroneous in so far as it is prejudicial to the interest of the revenue and is illegal or improper or has not taken into account certain material facts, whether available at the time of issuance of the said order or not or in consequence of an observation by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, he may, if necessary, stay the operation of such decision or order for such period as he deems fit and after giving the person concerned an opportunity of being heard and after making such further inquiry as may be necessary, pass such order, as he thinks just and proper, including enhancing or modifying or annulling the said decision or order.

Section 100 provides for the constitution of the National Appellate Tribunal.  The Central Government shall on the recommendation of the GST Council constitute a National Goods and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (‘Appellate Tribunal’ for short).

The Appellate Tribunal shall be headed by a National President.  The Appellate Tribunal shall have one branch for each State, which shall be called as the State GST Tribunal.  Every State Tribunal will be headed by a State President.  Every State Tribunal shall consist of as many-

• Members (judicial);
• Members (Technical - CGST); and
• Members (Technical – SGST)

as may be prescribed, to exercise the powers and discharge the functions conferred on the Appellate Tribunal by this Act.

The qualifications, eligibility conditions and the manner of selection and appointment of the National President, Members (Judicial) and the Member (Technical-CGST) shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government on recommendations of the Council.

The qualifications, eligibility conditions and the manner of selection and appointment of State Presidents and the Member s (Technical – SGST) shall be such as may be prescribed by the State Government, on the recommendations of the Council.

The National President and the State Presidents shall exercise such powers and discharge such functions as may be prescribed on the recommendations of the Council.   On ceasing to hold office, the National President, the State Presidents or other Members of the Appellate Tribunal shall not be entitled to appear, act or plead before the Appellate Tribunal.

As per Section 17 of IGST Act, the provisions relating to Appellate Tribunal are applicable to IGST Act also.

Companies Act, 2013 replaced the erstwhile Company Law Board and transferred all the pending cases to the newly constituted under National Company Law Tribunal.   But this is not the case in respect of Appellate Tribunal under this Act.  There is no provision for the same.  Therefore it may be presumed the Appellate Tribunal under this Act will entertain the matters of GST only after  its implementation.  The CESTAT for the purposes of service tax, central excise and customs will be continuing.   Customs will not subsume in GST.  As such, in my opinion, CESTAT will continue and will clear all the pending cases of service tax and excise duty in near future.   Likewise Tribunals were established by the respective State Governments to deal with the appeal cases of respective State VAT.  They may also continue and will clear all the pending cases of VAT in near future and after that they may cease to function.