GST Appeal Amnesty Scheme 2023

Amnesty for Taxpayers: The GST Council, in its 52^nd meeting, recommended granting amnesty to taxpayers who could not file an appeal under section 107 of the CGST (Central Goods and Services Tax) Act, 2017, against the demand order under section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act, 2017, passed on or before March 31, 2023, or whose appeal against the said order was rejected due to not being filed within the specified time frame in sub-section (1) of section 107.

Procedure to be followed:

1. Scenario where appeal has not been filed: Fresh Appeal to be filed in APL- 01

• Taxpayers can file an appeal in the usual manner using FORM GST APL-01 on the GST portal on or before 31^st January 2024 for the demand orders passed by the proper officer up till 31^st March 2023. 
• Pre-deposit of 12.5% of the tax under dispute (Interest and/or penalty component NOT to be considered while calculating the pre-deposit amount) 
• Out of the pre-deposit amount (12.5%) at least 20% (i.e. 2.5% of the tax under dispute) should be paid using the Electronic Cash Ledger (i.e., to be paid in CASH)
• Entire set of physical documents mandatorily along-with the certified copy of the order being appealed against, to be sent to the jurisdictional office within 7 days of filing of an appeal on the GST Portal. 

2. Scenario where appeal already filed after condonation of delay (i.e., 90 + 30 days) but rejected as time barred in APL 02

• Taxpayers who have previously filed an appeal but it was rejected on the grounds
  • that the hard set of the documents not submitted with the concerned jurisdictional office within the prescribed time limit of 7 days or, 
  • as time barred in APL-02 by the Appellate authority, 

then the taxpayer will be able to refile the appeal while availing the benefit of this amnesty scheme. 

• Amount of pre-deposit which was already deposited (while filing of original appeal) will be utilised towards the refiling of the appeal, no need to deposit the entire amount again. (However, additional amount of 2.5% to be deposited)

• Entire set of physical documents mandatorily along-with the certified copy of the order being appealed against, to be sent to the jurisdictional office within 7 days of filing of an appeal on the GST Portal. 

Note: In case, the taxpayers face any issue while re-filing APL-01, a ticket shall be raised on the Grievance redressal portal. 

Taxpayers falling under this category should not wait for the last moment to file an appeal. There may be instances wherein some technical glitches occur resulting in loss of this golden opportunity to refile an appeal which have been rejected on the grounds of being time barred and merits have not been looked for. 

3. Scenario where appeal already filed after condonation of delay (i.e., 90 + 30 days) but rejected order issued in APL 04:

• Rejection order being issued in APL-04 due to the appeal application being time-barred, then the taxpayer has to approach the respective Appellate Authority office well in advance to comply with the dates. 
• The Appellate authority after checking the eligibility of the taxpayer for the amnesty scheme will forward the case to GSTN through the State Nodal officer.

Note: it is important to note that for the APL-04 issued cases no direct representations will be entertained by GSTN or through the Grievance redressal portal. APL 04-issued cases have to be compulsorily forwarded through the State Nodal officer.

Key Aspects to Summarise:

1. Appeal/ Re-appeal can be filed only in respect of the demand orders issued on or before 31^st March 2023.
2. Last date to avail this benefit is 31^st January 2024. (It is advisable to submit the hard copies, as-well, within the deadline of 31^st January 2024, to avoid any rejections)
3. No appeal/Re-appeal will be entertained wherein the order issued DOES NOT involve any tax amount.
4. Taxpayers having matters pertaining to any type of refund CANNOT avail the benefit of this amnesty scheme. (Wherein the appeals have been rejected, they might have to wait till the formation of tribunals or might have to explore the ways which involve filing of writ before the jurisdictional High Courts)
5. Form APL -01 to be used to file an appeal. No new form has been introduced.
6. Increased pre-deposit from 10% (in normal situations) to 12.5% of the disputed tax liability.
7. There are scenarios where-in the department has started the recovery proceedings after the rejection of appeal (in some cases, might have also recovered the entire amount of tax liability either by debiting the Credit ledger /or attaching the bank accounts). In these special cases where-in the recovery has already been made, there will be NO NEED to deposit additional 2.5% as the pre-deposit amount. In addition to this, suitable amendment in the ‘Grounds of Appeal’ is advisable. 

Author comments:

A welcome step by the Department of GST for providing relief to the Taxpayers by allowing filing of appeals/re-appeals, will also result in reducing the burden of tones of appeals application to be filed before the Appellant Tribunal (once the tribunal is formed and notified). The amnesty scheme is expected to clear the backlog of all those appeals which have been rejected merely on the grounds of delay in submission, without going into the merits of the case. This is a wonderful opportunity for the taxpayers who couldn’t represent their case before the appellate authorities and got an ex-parte order, to present their cases before the authorities and get the relief.