Coalition for the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal in India

The Coalition for the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal in India (‘GSTAT Coalition India’) has been convened to advocate for the speedy constitution of and develop an inclusive and shared imagination of a modern digital Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (‘GSTAT’).

Background:

Since the introduction of the goods and services tax in India more than four years ago, we have seen a steady rise in litigation as taxpayers are often faced with ambiguous legal provisions. The situation has been exacerbated by the non-constitution of the GSTAT. In the absence of the GSTAT, assesses have been constrained to approach the High Courts for relief, thereby adding to the latter’s workload. In September 2021, the Supreme Court directed the government to set up the GSTAT without further delay to avoid hardships caused to litigants and to curb the huge backlog of cases.

The GSTAT presents a greenfield opportunity to build a completely online dispute resolution system that can significantly ease doing business and signal the Indian government’s intentions to solve tax disputes fast and economically without compromising revenue interest. A state-of-the-art dispute resolution institution backed by a constitutionally sound legal framework would require well-drafted rules and regulations to be put in place for its functioning. Building such an institution will require new skills and a long-term vision committed to change and transformation.

The GSTAT Coalition India has brought together experts from various domains – lawyers, chartered accountants, economists, policy makers and administrators for the mission to spearhead this cause.

Papers

Technology and Administration of GST Appellate Tribunal

Now that the GSTAT has been established as a single national institution with state-level benches, it is important for technology and governance to also follow this structure.In this ‘Note on Technology and Governance of GSTAT, August 2023’, the design principles and options for governance have been explored. The note recommends building citizen-centric resilient technology for GSTAT that is in line with federal principles coupled with reimagined simplified rules and workflows that enable making the most of data flows enabled by current technologies. The note also recommends that the GSTAT set up a Project Management Unit (PMU) consisting of diverse skills at the earliest to enable engaging with technology vendors. GSTN, with its experience in this domain, should be leveraged in this process with mechanisms to maintain GSTAT’s independence.

A Note on GSTAT: State Level vs National Level, February 2023

The Coalition for GSTAT has in November 2022 put out a Joint Note on GSTAT on the institutional design, operating model and legal framework for a truly modern GSTAT. One of the recommendations was that the GSTAT should be a single national institution with benches across the country. Some states have expressed the need to have state-level GSTATs. A Note on GSTAT: State Level vs National Level, will explore the implications of state-level and national-level GSTAT based on the framework of the guiding principles for institutional design in the Joint Note.

Joint Note on the Constitution of the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), November 2022

Since the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in India more than four years ago, we have seen a steady rise in litigation arising from ambiguous legal provisions. The non-constitution of the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) has exacerbated the situation. There are both immediate and long-term imperatives of the Goods and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT). It needs to be operational at the earliest to meet the needs of taxpayers who have had to take recourse to High Courts for regular GST appeals in its absence. Despite a Supreme Court order directing the union government to create the GSTAT, the tribunal has still not been set up.“The ‘Joint Note on the Constitution of the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT)’ by the Coalition for the GSTAT makes recommendations with respect to institutional design, operating model, and legal framework aspects for this brand-new institution. The establishment of the GSTAT presents a greenfield opportunity to build a natively digital dispute resolution institution that can significantly ease doing business in the long term and signal India’s intention to solve tax disputes fast and economically without compromising revenue interest.

The Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal

The Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal – A Concept Note submitted to key policymakers in May 2022.

Activities undertaken

Statements

Statement by the Coalition for GSTAT welcomes the responsiveness shown in operationalising the GSTAT and wants the GST Council to draft rules in a collaborative and transparent manner on June 9, 2023.
Statement by the Coalition as it welcomes the setting up of the GST Appellate Tribunal with the passage of the Finance Act, 2023 on April 10, 2023.
Statement by the Coalition as it welcomes the acceptance by the GST Council of the report of the Group of Ministers on the GST Appellate Tribunal with certain modifications as per the press release of the GST Council dated February 18, 2023.

Press Release

Statement by the Coalition as it welcomes the acceptance by the GST Council of the report of the Group of Ministers on the GST Appellate Tribunal with certain modifications as per the press release of the GST Council dated February 18, 2023.
Press Release – GSTAT Coalition India submits GSTAT Concept Note to FinMin 4 May 2022.

Events

The Coalition organised an online roundtable on the setting up of the GSTAT for representatives from trade and commerce associations and practitioners on January 4, 2023.
DAKSH, in collaboration with NASSCOM, organised a roundtable on the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) in New Delhi on February 28, 2024. The roundtable builds on the work we have done over the last couple of years at the Coalition for GSTAT convened by DAKSH. Key policymakers, legal practitioners and industry leaders deliberated upon the operational aspects of a truly modern GSTAT, a transition plan for rolling out the GSTAT in states and its institutional structure.

Media

A National Conference on GST, 2023 was organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on May 24, 2023, to discuss developments and challenges in GST, GST Litigation, anti-profiteering, writ petitions and recent leading judgments.Surya Prakash BS of DAKSH moderated the session on ‘Formation of GST Tribunal and Resolution’. The session was chaired by Prakash Kumar, ex CEO GSTN. Jatin Harjai, another Coalition member, was also a panelist. You can watch the session here from 1:48:00 onwards.
GST Council decides to set up tribunals for dispute resolution.
GST Council gives nod to appellate tribunal.
49th GST Council Meeting Highlights: Compensation to states cleared, rate cuts announced, and more.
GST Council meet: Pending GST compensation of ₹16,982 crore for June will be cleared, says FM Sitharaman.
GSTAT will we national by : A Jatin Christopher.
India’s GST appeal process requires urgent reforms too – An op-ed by Dr Ajit Ranade in Mint in May 2022.
GST law brought a drastic change. But only a digital GSTAT can be the model for tribunals – An Op-ed by Harish Narasappa and Surya Prakash BS on The Print in October 2021.
All Things Policy Ep. 1012: The GST Appellate Tribunal Opportunity by Takshashila Institution.

Coalition members:

Ajit Ranade

Vice Chancellor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Pune

Bhavya Sudhir is a Law graduate from Aligarh Muslim University. He holds an LLM in Access to Justice from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. His research interest lies in the intersection of Law, Public Policy and Society.

Najib Shah

IRS (retd.), formerly Chairperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs, Bengaluru

Mr. Najib Shah, an officer of the 1979 batch of Indian Customs & Central Excise service, is a former chairman of the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) having retired in March 2017. As the Chairman of CBEC and as a special invitee to the GST council, he was involved with the process leading to the formulation of the GST Laws.

Prakash Kumar

Prakash Kumar, IAS (retd.), formerly CEO of Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN), New Delhi

Mr. Prakash Kumar, CEO at the Wadhwani Institute for Technology and Policy and a former officer of the Indian Administrative Service, has vast experience working with key government departments to transform their functioning by leveraging technology for the public good. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer at the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), where he led the designing and setting up of the IT infrastructure for implementing GST at both the central and state government level.

L. Badri Narayanan

Executive Partner, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan, New Delhi

Mr. L Badri Narayanan is a practising lawyer and executive partner at the law firm, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan Attorneys, where he also leads the Digital L&S initiative. He has been advising several companies on a variety of issues having GST implications such as trade promotion schemes, royalties and license fee arrangements, contract manufacturing scenarios, software as a service offerings, outsourcing, consortiums and joint ventures, valuation, etc.

Manish Mishra

Partner, Jyoti Sagar and Associates,
Gurgaon

Mr. Manish Mishra is a practising lawyer and partner at the law firm, Jyoti Sagar and Associates, Advocates and Solicitors where he heads the indirect tax practice. He has more than 23 years of experience in indirect taxation across Industry, consulting and law firms. He is currently advising various clients on GST transition and regularly appears before various adjudicating and appellate forums for clients in GST and other tax-related litigation.

Prakash Kumar

Partner, JCSS,
Bengaluru

Mr. A. Jatin Christopher is a founding member and partner at JCSS, a Chartered Accountants firm based out of Bangalore. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. He specializes in GST issues, SPAs (Sale and Purchase Agreements) and PDAs (Product Distribution Agreements) of global entities. He has also served as faculty and senior resource member of the ICAI on indirect taxes and advised on clarifications on GST matters at various forums.

Charanya Lakshmikumaran

Partner

Ms. Charanya is a practising lawyer and partner at the law firm, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan Attorneys, where she appears regularly before the Supreme Court, High Courts, and tribunals.

Bimal Jain

Chairman of Indirect Taxes & GST Committee of PHD Chamber of Commerce, New Delhi

Bimal Jain is an FCA, FCS & LLB with 24 Yrs of Experience experience in Indirect Taxation and specializes in all aspects of Goods and Services Tax (GST). He is the Chairman of the Indirect Tax Committee of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and a Member of the Indirect Tax Committee of ASSOCHAM / FICCI.

Vivek Jalan

Chairman – Fiscal Affairs And Taxation Committee – The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Kolkata

Vivek Jalan is a Chartered Accountant, a qualified LL.M & LL.B. He is the Partner of Tax Connect Advisory Services LLP. He is the Chairman of The Fiscal And Taxation Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Jatin Harjai

Leader at JHA Legal,
Jaipur

Jatin is a practising Chartered Accountant with core expertise in Indirect Taxes (GST/ VAT/ Sales Tax/ Service Tax/ Works Tax/ Industry Incentive Schemes). He is the Chairperson of the Indirect Tax Core Group of The CII-Economic Affairs Committee – ER.

Tejasvi Gupta

Manager at NASSCOM: Public policy and Government Liasioning, New Delhi

Tejasvi Gupta is a Chartered Accountant. She is currently a Manager at NASSCOM for Public Policy and Government Liasioning.

Shrenik Shah

Partner
Tax Technology at Deloitte

Shrenik Shah is an experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. Read More

S Ramesh

Managing Director at
Price Waterhouse & Co LLP

S Ramesh is currently the Managing Director at PwC Pvt Ltd. He is a former Chairman of CBIC, (Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs).

Prashanth Agarwal

Partner
Pwc

Prashanth Agarwal is currently a Partner at PwC in the Greater Delhi Area.

Pooja Talwar

Advocate & Special Counsel to the High Court of Allahabad

Pooja has handled a wide variety of cases including tax matters and is Joint Secretary (North Zone) to the All India Federation for Tax Practitioners and is also a Member of the Indirect Tax Representation(GST)Committee.

Badrinath NR

Badrinath leads the tax and regulatory vertical at Singhvi Dev & Unni LLP. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an Associate member of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. He is a member of the GST Grievance Redressal Committee recently notified and jointly set up by the Central and State Governments. He works actively in taking the concerns of the trade and industry to both, the Central and the State Governments through representations. Read More

DAKSH, Bangalore

DAKSH is a civil society organization that undertakes research and activities to promote accountability and better governance in India. By studying institutions to understand their functioning and identifying areas for improvement, DAKSH has been working to create inclusive, transparent, self-correcting mechanisms that encourage accountability in all branches of the government. It has been working actively on tribunals reform in India through our research and collaborations. It has published a draft whitepaper on a Framework for the National Tribunals Commission (May 2021), written op-eds on restructuring tribunals and a digital GSTAT (October 2021) and organized panel discussions on next generation tribunals in India (January 2022).

The DAKSH team is represented on this Coalition by:

Harish Narasappa

Senior Advocate, High Court of Karnataka and co-Founder, DAKSH; Email: harish@dakshindia.org

Surya Prakash B S

Programme Director, DAKSH (Convener, GSTAT Coalition India); Email: surya@dakshindia.org

For more information about the Coalition and its work, please contact:

Mr. Surya Prakash B.S., Convener, Coalition for the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal and Programme Director, DAKSH, Bangalore at surya@dakshindia.org.

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Coalition for the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal in India

Technology and Administration of GST Appellate Tribunal

A Note on GSTAT: State Level vs National Level, February 2023

Joint Note on the Constitution of the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), November 2022

The Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal

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