The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs announced the amnesty scheme, offering additional time for filing appeals on GST demand notices served.
Taxpayers will now have additional time until Jan. 31, 2024, to file appeals against such demand orders.
This is in line with the outcome of the 52nd Goods and Services Tax Council meeting.
The facility would be available on the condition that the taxpayer pays a pre-deposit amount of 12.5% of the tax under dispute, and of this, at least 20% (i.e., 2.5% of the tax under dispute) should be debited from the electronic cash ledger, which could affect the working capital positions of companies.
The amnesty scheme covers those who could not file an appeal under Section 107 of the CGST Act, 2017, against a demand order (Section 73 or 74 of the same Act) that was passed on or before March 31, 2023. It also covers those cases where the appeal was rejected solely on the grounds of delayed filing.
Appeals can be filed against orders where there is a tax liability with included interest and penalty, though not in cases where it's only interest, fine and penalty.
Sections 73 and 74 apply in cases where the department has identified a tax shortfall, lack of payment, erroneous refund of input tax credit wrongly availed or utilised, or in cases where a 'wilful misstatement or suppression of facts' is alleged.
Prior to this, the law allowed a taxpayer to file an appeal in such cases within three months of the tax officer passing such a demand order, which now stands extended by one more month.
Although an amnesty scheme for returns exists, the scheme for appeals was eagerly awaited owing to the new process and the rejection of appeals in cases of delayed filing, according to Ankur Gupta, indirect tax practice leader at SW India.
"...the High Courts (in the absence of the Tribunal) had taken varying positions on whether appeals could be accepted beyond statutory timelines. Therefore, this amnesty scheme provides relief to all such taxpayers, provided the adjudication order was passed before March 31, 2023," he said.
He noted that assessment orders that were passed under Sections 62, 63 and 64 are not covered under the amnesty scheme, in what could be an intentional move as these orders primarily affect non-registered (liable to be registered) and non-filers (of returns).
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