GST appellate tribunal chiefs' age limit to be raised to 70 years, members' to 67 years

New Delhi:  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to raise the age limit for president and members of GST appellate tribunals.

The Central Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2023, seeks to cap the age for president and members of the GST appellate tribunals (GSTAT) at 70 years and 67 years, respectively, higher than 67 years and 65 years specified earlier.

An advocate with 10 years of 'substantial experience' in litigation in matters relating to indirect taxes in the Appellate Tribunal, would be eligible to be appointed as a judicial member of the GSTAT.

As per the amendment, president and the judicial and technical members of the GSTAT shall hold office for four years, or until he attains the age of 70 years and 67 years, respectively, whichever is earlier.

The rules notified by the government earlier had fixed the age limit for the president and members of GSTAT at 67 years and 65 years, respectively.

The GST Council chaired by Sitharaman and comprising finance ministers of all states and UTs, had in October approved the change in the age criteria.

The president and members of the GSTAT would be eligible for re-appointment for a period of two years subject to the age limit of 70 and 67, respectively, as per the amended bill.

Parliament had in March cleared amendments in the GST Act, enabling the creation of the Central Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunals. Following that, GSTAT was notified on July 31.

"During the process of operationalisation of the said Tribunal, it was observed that certain provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, need to be aligned with the Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021.

"Accordingly, the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 are being aligned with the Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021, to initiate the administrative process for operationalisation of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunals at the earliest," said the statement of objects and reasons of the bill introduced by Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

A person who has not completed the age of 50 years shall not be eligible for appointment as the president or member, the bill said.

A finance ministry official had last week said that operationalising GSTATs would take about 4-5 months and efforts are also being made to identify infrastructure, following which the selection process of members will start.

In September, the Finance Ministry notified 31 benches of the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), which will be set up in 28 states and 8 UTs.

Setting up of state-level benches of GSTAT would help businesses by way of faster dispute resolution.

Currently, taxpayers aggrieved with the ruling of tax authorities are required to move to the respective High Courts. The resolution process takes longer time as High Courts are already burdened with a backlog of cases and do not have a specialised bench to deal with GST cases.

As per the notification, Gujarat and UTs -- Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu -- will have two benches of the GSTAT; Goa and Maharashtra together will have three benches.

Karnataka and Rajasthan will have two benches each, while Uttar Pradesh will have three benches.

West Bengal, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands; Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will together have two GSTAT benches each, while Kerala and Lakshadweep will have one bench each.

The seven northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura -- will have one bench.

All other states will have one bench of the GSTAT.