GSTAT mandates e-filing of appeals, sets staggered deadlines till June 2026

GSTAT has mandated e-filing of appeals via its new NIC-built portal, setting staggered deadlines till June 30, 2026, to avoid congestion and prioritise older cases

The Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) has made electronic filing of appeals mandatory on its newly launched portal, while also issuing a staggered schedule for submissions to avoid system congestion. The portal, developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), was formally launched on Wednesday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

 

Appeals pending up to January 31, 2022, must be filed between September 24 and October 31, 2025, while cases from February 1, 2022, to February 28, 2023, can be filed between November 1, 2025, and November 30, 2025. Appeals filed on the common portal between March 1, 2023, and January 31, 2024, must be submitted to GSTAT between December 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025.

 

Appeals filed between February 1, 2024, and May 31, 2024, must be submitted between January 1 and January 31, 2026. Appeals filed between June 1, 2024, and March 31, 2026, can be submitted from February 1, 2026, onwards, while appeals not yet filed or issued up to March 31, 2026, can be submitted from March 1, 2026, onwards. In all cases, the final deadline for filing remains June 30, 2026, as per the GSTAT order. Although GSTAT has set a staggered filing schedule, it can still hear cases flexibly and is not strictly bound by the deadlines, the tribunal has clarified.

 

The phased approach is aimed at preventing technical bottlenecks and ensuring older appeals are taken up first. According to GSTAT President Justice (retired) Sanjay Kumar Mishra, around 4.8 lakh appeals are expected to be filed against orders of the first appellate authority.

 

Abhishek A Rastogi, founder of Rastogi Chambers, said that while the staggered filing schedule for appeals before GSTAT is a welcome move to streamline processes, it may also create practical challenges. “In cases where frivolous demands have been raised, taxpayers will continue to face hardship as the pre-deposit amount remains blocked until the appeal is effectively filed and adjudicated. This could lead to delays in access to justice and liquidity concerns for businesses that are already under strain,” he observed.

 

The move to transition the Tribunal process to a digital platform is a welcome step and a positive direction in the government’s digitisation drive, according to Abhishek Jain, indirect tax head and partner, KPMG.

 

“Staggered timelines will help prevent technical bottlenecks and ensure priority disposal of earlier appeals. Industry now looks forward to the Tribunal becoming operational soon to provide much-needed certainty on several pending issues,” Jain added.