NEW DELHI: The GST Council in its 49th meeting accepted the Group of Ministers’ (GoM) recommendations on long pending constitution of GST appellate tribunal in the country with some modifications, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.
The GoM has recommended one tribunal with the principal bench in Delhi and as many other benches to be located in the states depending on the business density there. While the FM didn’t say anything about the timing of tribunal establishment in the country, a top official said it would likely be implemented by December.
“GoM has recommended one technical member on a 50:50 basis from the state and the centre, plus one judicial member. The modification was suggested that it should be two plus two. However, the decision making will be only with at most one plus one or less than one, so all the four won’t sit. So this will allow both the states and centre to have a representative on the technical side and the equal representation for the judicial member. So these were the main recommendations, with small modification which has been accepted,” Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said while briefing the media.
Sitharaman said the states will have a number of benches depending upon the density of businesses, though the GST council will approve it. “No interest of the state will suffer in terms of location, number of representations and the benches,” she stated. In addition, in a bid to plug the leakages and improve the revenue collection from the commodities like pan masala, gutkha, chewing tobacco, the Council approved the recommendations of the GoM.