Finance Ministry Set Up 31 State Benches of GST Appellate Tribunal

The Finance Ministry has officially announced the establishment of 31 GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) benches that will be located in every state and Union Territory.

Having these state-level GSTAT benches will be beneficial for businesses as it will speed up the process of resolving disputes.

Currently, when taxpayers are unhappy with decisions made by tax authorities, they have to approach their respective High Courts. This process is time-consuming because High Courts are already handling a large number of cases and don't have specialized benches dedicated to GST matters.

According to the notification, several states and union territories will have GSTAT benches as follows:

West Bengal, Sikkim, Andaman, and Nicobar Islands will share two benches.

Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will also share two benches.

Kerala and Lakshadweep will have one bench.

The Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura (seven North Eastern states) will have one bench of GSTAT.

Gujarat and the union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu will have two benches.

Goa and Maharashtra will jointly have three benches.

Rajasthan & Karnataka will have two benches.

Uttar Pradesh will have three benches.

All other states will have one bench GST Appellate Tribunal.

Also Read: The CBDT Extends The Deadline For Filing Income Tax Returns in ITR-7 For Assessment Year 2023-24