To operationalise the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT), the Centre on Friday notified the GSTAT (Procedure) Rules, which provide for mandatory e-filing of applications and conducting hearings in a hybrid mode.

The rules also provide that any urgent matter filed by an applicant before 12:00 noon shall be listed before the appellate tribunal on the following working day, if the application is complete in all respects.

In exceptional cases, the application may be received after 12:00 noon but before 3:00 pm for listing on the following day, with the specific permission of the appellate tribunal or the president.

The benches of GSTAT, a crucial body for resolving GST-related disputes, would sit from 10:30 am to 01:30 pm and from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm, subject to any order made by the president.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has notified comprehensive rules for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Appellate Tribunal, with effect from April 24, outlining the procedures for filing, management and adjudication of appeals, and set out the powers, duties and functions of the tribunal.

The rules say that all appeals must be filed online through the GSTAT portal, while the hearing can be in-person or online, as approved by the tribunal president.

If you are living in a housing society, then you need to pay an amount of fee as maintenance for the upkeep of the buildings and common area. If the apartment is managed by RWA and Registered Society then then there is no requirement to pay Goods and Services Tax (GST) on maintenance fee by the residents if monthly amount is below the specified threshold. However, in many housing societies it takes time for RWA or Registered Society to be formed and in this situation, GST is applicable if the housing society is still managed by the builder. How much will GST be charged and who will pay it is the question.

Let us understand in detail how GST will be applied in different scenarios depending upon the amount of maintenance and who is managing the housing society.

In a relief for homeowners or landowners, the Bombay High Court on April 8, 2025, ruled that no Goods and Services Tax (GST) can be levied on re-development of a land by a homeowner/ landowner through a builder in specific cases where the development rights are not sold. In legal terms, the high court interpreted the law and made a distinction between the standalone transfer of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) or Floor Space Index (FSI) and the transfer of development rights under a joint development agreement (JDA) between a builder and homeowner.

To give you a brief how JDAs work, think of a homebuyer/landowner who has a plot of land. To monetise this land, the homeowner/landowner sells the land’s development rights to a builder in exchange for money or apartments and then also pays the builder for construction work of a multi-storied apartment on the said plot of land.

Central and state GST officers have detected 25,009 fake firms involved in fraudulently passing input tax credit (ITC) worth Rs 61,545 crore during 2024-25, officials said. During the 2024-25 fiscal ending March 2025, Central and state GST officers recovered Rs 1,924 crore by way of blocking ITC and arrested 168 persons.

As per data on ITC frauds unearthed by Central and State GST officers, over the two years 2023-24 and 2024-25, 42,140 fake firms were detected, which were involved in fraudulently generating ITC of over Rs 1.01 lakh crore. Rs 3,107 crore was recovered by way of blocking of ITC, and 316 arrests have been made.

"The Central and State Governments and GSTN have taken various steps to prevent fake ITC claims, including providing intelligence inputs, detecting fraudulent registration, and suspicious e-way bill activity," an official told PTI.

The Ministry of Finance has categorically denied recent rumors suggesting that it is planning to impose Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions exceeding Rs 2,000.

In an official statement issued on Friday by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government called such claims “false, misleading, and without any basis.”

“The claims that the Government is considering levying Goods and Services Tax (GST) on UPI transactions over Rs 2,000 are completely false, misleading, and without any basis. Currently, there is no such proposal before the Government,” the statement clarified, reassuring users and merchants alike.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has issued a new directive under which the businesses will be able to obtain GST registration within seven working days.

The move comes in response to complaints from businesses about delays and unnecessary documentation demands. The CBIC observed that field officers were often asking for "unwarranted documents" and raising "presumptive queries" that went beyond official requirements.To address this, the board has now issued a revised set of instructions, including an indicative list of documents officers may request, strictly online.

However, applications flagged as risky, will be processed within 30 days following a physical verification of the premises.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will likely meet in June or early July to consider reducing the tax rate on health and life insurance to 5% with input tax credit (ITC) from 18%, among other rationalisations.

Among other matters, the Council may examine the GoM report on rate rationalisation to give further relief to people through rate reductions and rejig of the number of slabs. The GoM headed by Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary submitted its report in December 2024.

Due to the need for extended consultations with stakeholders and varied stands taken by states, the Council had deferred a decision on the reduction of the tax rate on insurance since September 2024.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has released an important circular about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration process rules which are to be followed by a GST proper officer responsible for handling the GST registration process. The stress is on the word ‘registration process’, as CBIC noted that taxpayers were getting harassed by the GST registration process and this caused an increasing number of complaints being filed by taxpayers. CBIC said in this circular that GST officers handling registration applications should not ask any presumptive query which is not related to the documents or information submitted by the applicant.

Experts with whom ET Wealth Online spoke said that the GST registration process is not standardised and there remains many ambiguities. In many situations help of GST officer is needed.

The goods and services tax (GST) department is reportedly probing restaurants to know if they have escaped taxes on the 'packaging charge.'

This comes after the tax office had previously stepped in to recover GST on 'food and delivery' charges, according to an Economic Times report.

HT.com cannot independently verify the authenticity of the information contained in the report.

This development came about as several eateries listed with food aggregator platforms like Zomato have received summons from the department in the past few months, asking them to share details of GST paid on packaging charges since January 1, 2022.

This GST on packaging charges which are collected from customers, have left tax authorities doubting whether the amounts have actually reached the state coffers, according to the report.

It to inform that GSTN has implemented phase wise changes in Table-12 of GSTR-1 or GSTR-1A. For the same various advisories have been issued time to time, which are available on GST Portal. GSTN is going to implement Phase-III of Table 12 of GSTR 1 & 1A from April, 2025 tax period onwards. Which implies:

(1). Table-12 has been bifurcated into two tables namely B2B and B2C, to report these summary of these supplies HSN wise separately in corresponding table.

(2). Manual entry of HSN will not be allowed. Taxpayer will be able to choose correct HSN from given Drop down.

For detailed advisory on the above issue, kindly refer to Advisory dated Jan 22nd, 2025 issued by GSTN,

1. Table 3.2 of Form GSTR-3B captures the inter-state supplies made to unregistered persons, composition taxpayers, and UIN holders out of the supplies declared in Table 3.1 & 3.1.1 of GSTR-3B. The values in Table 3.2 of GSTR-3B auto-populates from corresponding inter-state supplies declared in GSTR-1, GSTR-1A, and IFF in requisite tables.

2. It is to inform you that from April-2025 tax period, inter-state supplies auto-populated in Table 3.2 of GSTR-3B will be made non-editable. The GSTR-3B shall be filed with the auto-populated values as generated by the system only.

3. Therefore, in case any modification/amendment is required in auto-populated values of Table 3.2 of GSTR-3B, same can be done only by amending the corresponding values in respective tables of GSTR-1A or through Form GSTR-1/IFF filed for subsequent tax periods.

4. To ensure that GSTR-3B is filed accurately with the correct values of inter-state supplies, it is advised to report the correct values in GSTR-1, GSTR-1A, or IFF. This will ensure the auto-populated values in Table 3.2 of GSTR-3B are accurate and compliant with GST regulations.

With apartments now the default mode of urban living, the government is tapping housing societies to impose 18 per cent GST on monthly maintenance. Experts estimate that around 50 lakh people live in apartments in Bengaluru, and at least another 40 lakh across cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi and Belagavi; and these are only the numbers for Karnataka.

The GST catch is the regulation for housing societies: If monthly maintenance for an apartment is Rs 7,500 or more, or if the society’s total annual collection exceeds Rs 20 lakh, then GST kicks in. Even if the society collects Rs 20 lakh in a financial year for occasional expenses like painting or replacing the lift, it comes under the GST bracket.

Little wonder that apartment dwellers are pushing panic buttons, having WhatsApp debates and holding meetings on whether they should register under GST.

1. This is to inform you that, effective 1st June 2025, the IRP (Invoice Reporting Portal) would treat invoice/document numbers as case-insensitive for the purpose of IRN generation.

2. To ensure consistency and avoid duplication, invoice numbers reported in any format (e.g., "abc", "ABC", or "Abc") would be automatically converted to uppercase before IRN generation. This change aligns with the treatment of invoice numbers in GSTR-1, which already treats them as case-insensitive.

3. The same is shared for your kind information please. For any further clarification, please reach out to the GST helpdesk.

This is to inform taxpayers about recent developments concerning the application process for GST registration. It is advised to keep the following key points in mind during the registration process.

1. Rule 8 of the CGST Rules, 2017 has been amended to provide that an applicant can be identified on the common portal, based on data analysis and risk parameters for Biometric-based Aadhaar Authentication and taking a photograph of the applicant along with the verification of the original copy of the documents uploaded with the application.

2. The above-said functionality has been developed by GSTN. It has been rolled out in Assam on 1st April, 2025.

Gross goods and services tax (GST) collection grew 9.9% to Rs 1.96 lakh crore in March (February transactions), the second-highest mop-up ever, reflecting an uptick in goods shipments.

According to the government data, GST revenues from domestic transactions rose 8.8% to Rs 1.49 lakh crore, while revenue from imported goods was up 13.56% to Rs 46,919 crore.

The gross collection includes Central GST receipts of Rs 38,145 crore, state GST of Rs 49,891 crore and Integrated GST (IGST) of Rs 95,853 crore. Cess collection stood at Rs 12,253 crore in March.

Due to jump in refunds, the net GST revenue rose 7.3% to over Rs 1.76 lakh crore in March 2025 compared with the year ago month.

The value added tax (VAT) revolution began in the 1950s and has since expanded to over 170 countries. Designed as a consumption tax, VAT is widely recognised as an efficient revenue-generation mechanism, contributing approximately 35% of total tax revenues worldwide. It is also considered more conducive to economic growth and easier to administer than other forms of taxation.

A well-designed VAT system has a broad base, minimal exemptions, a single rate, and an administratively feasible registration threshold. Effective implementation requires self-assessment, digital compliance mechanisms, robust refund systems, and efficient tax administration. However, political and administrative constraints often hinder optimal VAT design.

The Supreme Court recently held that companies can rectify clerical or arithmetical errors in Goods and Services Tax (GST) filings and they should not be penalised for doing this.

This decision upheld businesses’ right to correct such mistakes without facing penalties or denial of Input Tax Credit (ITC), as long as there is no revenue loss.

“The court has noted that human errors and mistakes are normal, and errors are also made by the Revenue department. The court has stated that the right to correct mistakes in the nature of clerical or arithmetical error is a right that flows from the right to do business.

Hotels charging a room rent above Rs 7,500 a day at any time in any financial year will be considered 'specified premises' for the next fiscal and restaurant services provided inside such premises will attract 18 per cent GST with input tax credit, the CBIC said on Thursday.

From April 1, 2025, the taxability of such restaurants which operate inside hotels will be on the basis of value of supply (transactional value). This would replace the concept of 'declared tariff' which included charges for all amenities provided in the unit of accommodation (given on rent for stay) like furniture, air conditioner, refrigerators or any other amenities, but without excluding any discount offered on the published charges for such unit.

"For the period starting from 01.04.2025, the value of supply of hotel accommodation in the previous FY, i.e., the transaction value charged for the said supply, would be the basis for determining whether the premises providing hotel accommodation service mandatorily falls under the category of 'specified premises' or not in the current FY," the CBIC said in a FAQ issued on the topic of 'Restaurant Service' supplied at 'Specified Premises'.

In a significant ruling that promises ease of compliance to taxpayers under the goods and services tax, the Supreme Court has held that companies can correct human or arithmetical errors in tax filings and should not be penalised for that and must not be denied input tax credit due to these.

Further, taking note of the rigid interpretation of rectification deadlines by tax authorities, the Supreme Court has also issued a notice to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to address the issue appropriately.

The ruling comes in an appeal filed by the CBIC against a Bombay High Court ruling in the case of Aberdare Technologies. The Bombay High Court had allowed the rectification of GST returns either electronically or manually.