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GST Tribunal - Many States opt to have several Area Benches besides Principal Bench

Published: Jun 22, 2019

By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22, 2019: IN 35th Meeting of the GST Council held here yesterday, which was also the first since Ms Nirmala Sitharaman took over as the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, 12 items on the agenda were discussed. Notably, the meeting also acknowledged the stellar role played by the former minister for Finance, Mr Arun Jaitley, in making the Council a prime example of cooperative federalism.

Some of these items were of regular nature like confirmation of the Minutes of the 34th GST Council Meeting, deemed ratification by the Council of notifications, circulars and orders issued by the Central Government between March 12, 2019 and June 11, 2019 & taking note of the decisions of GST Implementation Committee. The Council took a decision regarding location of the State and the Area Benches for the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) for various States and Union Territories with legislature. It has been decided to have a common State Bench for the States of Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Some of the States like UP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, TN and MP got nod to set up Principal Bench and several Area Benches. For instance, Maharashtra to have one Area Bench in Pune; UP to have main bench in Allahabad and Area Benches in Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Agra.

Moreover, the tenure of National Anti-Profiteering Authority has been extended by 2 years.

The Council also decided to introduce electronic invoicing system in a phase-wise manner for B2B transactions. E-invoicing is a rapidly expanding technology which would help taxpayers in backward integration and automation of tax relevant processes. It would also help tax authorities in combating the menace of tax evasion. The Phase 1 is proposed to be voluntary and it shall be rolled out from January 2020