VED praises Gadkari for bringing GSTAT at Nagpur
| Date :29-Aug-2019 |
Business Bureau :
GSTAT is the second appellate forum under GST legislation and the first common forum of dispute resolution between the Centre and states
Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED)’s pitch for Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) Bench at Nagpur was a very recent demand for this region which has turned out to be successful as Union Minister Nitin Gadkari took up this issue immediately with the Finance Ministry, after VED made a representation to him with their demand. The Finance Ministry in turn issued the gazette notification for this and all this in record time thanks to the persistent efforts of Gadkari.
Recently, the Central Government through the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) has notified Area Bench of GSTAT in Nagpur apart from Pune, in the State of Maharashtra. GSTAT is the second appellate forum under GST legislation and the first common forum of dispute resolution between the Centre and the states. In January 2019, the Central Govt had approved creation of a National Bench of GSTAT to be situated at New Delhi. Thereafter, the GST Council in its 28th meeting had also approved of the creation of three Regional Benches at Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. It is being anticipated that there will be voluminous litigation under GST considering growing business complexities and far-fetched implications thereon.
To cater to such large numbers of litigation, the National and Regional branches would easily cater to all four regions viz. North, South, East, and West. However, VED Council felt that there was a need to create GSTAT Bench for Central Region as well and, therefore, made a proposal in this regard. Shivkumar Rao, President of VED said, “We felt the need for a GSTAT Bench in Nagpur to facilitate central India, hence we made a representation to Nitin Gadkari who took it up immediately with the Finance Ministry. The Finance Ministry, in turn has been kind enough to issue the gazette notification for this.” Soon after the proposal was made, a big boost in this connection was announced in the 35th GST Council Meeting wherein the intention of the Government to have multiple benches in a State was confirmed.
CA Varun Vijaywargi, Joint Secretary VED Council who had drafted the representation for creating the GSTAT Bench at Nagpur said that it has always been a challenge for appellants and professionals representing them to pursue litigation matters at the Tribunal level as one had to travel all the way to Mumbai for multiple hearings. For the GSTAT Area bench for the Vidarbha region, the best suited location was Nagpur from the perspective of infrastructure as well as connectivity, he said. As regards the relevance of the Area Bench he clarified that an Area Bench can entertain appeals from Appellate Authority within State barring matters pertaining to ‘place of supply’ and appeals against the decisions of Area Bench would lie before the jurisdictional High Court.
It is pertinent to note that setting up of GSTAT (Area) Bench at Nagpur would enable faster disposal of indirect cases of Central India Timely representation from VED ensured that GSTAT Area Bench is allotted to Nagpur for the benefit of the Vidarbha region, said Rahul Upganlawar, Secretary General of VED.