ECONOMY
Interest, penalty on GST demand between FY18 and FY20 waived
- IBJ Bureau
- Jun 23, 2024
In a significant announcement, the 53rd GST Council meeting held on Saturday recommended waiving interest and penalties if tax is paid by March 31, 2025.
Waiver is applicable for demand notices issued under Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act for the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 in cases where the taxpayer pays the full amount of tax demanded in the notice up to March 31, 2025, the GST Council said.
However, the waiver does not cover the demand for erroneous refunds. To implement this, the GST Council has recommended insertion of Section 128A in CGST Act, 2017.
The GST Council also recommended prescribing monetary limits, subject to certain exclusions, for filing of appeals in GST by the department before GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), High Court and Supreme Court to reduce government litigation. The recommended monetary limits by the GST Council are GSTAT up to Rs 20 lakh, High Court up to Rs 1 crore and the Supreme Court up to Rs 2 crore.
The Council also recommended reducing the amount of pre-deposit for filing of appeals under GST to ease cash flow and working capital blockage for the taxpayers.
The maximum amount for filing an appeal with the appellate authority has been reduced from Rs 25 crore CGST and Rs 25 crore SGST to Rs 20 crore CGST and Rs 20 crore SGST.
Further, the amount of pre-deposit for filing appeal with the Appellate Tribunal has been reduced from 20 per cent with a maximum amount of Rs 50 crore CGST and Rs 50 crore SGST to 10 per cent with a maximum of Rs 20 crore CGST and Rs 20 crore SGST.
Another key recommendation by the GST Council recommended amending Section 112 of the CGST Act, 2017, to allow the three-month period for filing appeals before the Appellate Tribunal to start from a date to be notified by the government in respect of appeal/ revision orders passed before the date of said notification.
This will give sufficient time to the taxpayers to file appeal before the Appellate Tribunal in the pending cases, the GST Council said.
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