GST Council Announces ‘Amnesty Scheme’, Extends Timeline For Appeal Filing Till Jan 2024

The decision taken by the Council will provide taxpayers with additional time till January 31, 2024 to file appeals against the demand orders passed by tax authorities till March 2023. 

The Council stated that it will provide additional time to GST-registered businesses to file appeals on the condition that pay an enhanced pre-deposit of 12.5 per cent of the tax under dispute, compared to the current requirement of 10 per cent. 

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The GST Council in it’s meeting on Saturday announced an amnesty scheme allowing taxpayers to file appeals against demand orders in cases where an appeal couldn’t be filed within the specified time period. The decision taken by the Council will provide taxpayers with additional time till January 31, 2024 to file appeals against the demand orders passed by tax authorities till March 2023. 

According to the GST law, an assessee is given the time period of three months after the tax authorities pass the order, to file an appeal against the assessment order, reported Business Standard. This timeline can typically be extended by one month. 

However, the GST Council in it’s meeting on Saturday stated that it will provide additional time to GST-registered businesses to file appeals on the condition that pay an enhanced pre-deposit of 12.5 per cent of the tax under dispute, compared to the current requirement of 10 per cent. 

Revenue Secretary, Sanjay Malhotra, further clarified that the GST Council has suggested that taxpayers be allowed to file appeals till January 31, 2024 for all orders passed till March 31, 2023, with an enhanced pre-deposit. 

According to the amendments, of the total pre-deposit of 12.5 per cent of the tax under dispute, at least 20 per cent, which comes up to 2.5 per cent of the tax under dispute, should be debited from the Electronic Cash Ledger. 

An official statement from the finance ministry added that, “This will facilitate a large number of taxpayers, who could not file an appeal in the past within the specified time period.”

In addition to this, the Council also changed the GST rules to state that provisionally attached property will be released after the time period of one year. According to the law, tax officers are allowed to provisionally attach properties, inclusive of bank accounts, of GST-registered entities in the case of non-payment of taxes. The Council has now declared that such attachments will have a validity period of one year. “This will facilitate the release of provisionally attached properties after the expiry of the period of one year, without need for a separate specific written order from the Commissioner,” the ministry said.