In a significant announcement on the interest and penalty front, the 53rd GST Council meeting held on Saturday recommended waiving interest and penalties if the tax is paid by March 31, 2025.

Waiver is applicable for demand notices issued under Section 73 of the CGST Act for the fiscal years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, in cases where the taxpayer pays the full amount of tax demanded in the notice upto 31.03.2025, the Council said.

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However, the waiver does not cover the demand for erroneous refunds. To implement this, the GST Council has recommended insertion of Section 128A in CGST Act, 2017.

The Council also recommended to prescribe monetary limits, subject to certain exclusions, for filing of appeals in GST by the department before GST Appellate Tribunal, High Court, and Supreme Court, to reduce government litigation.The recommended monetary limits by the Council are GSTAT upto Rs 20 lakhs, High Court upto Rs 1 crore while the Supreme Court upto Rs 2 crores.

The Council also recommended reducing the amount of pre-deposit for filing of appeals under GST to ease cash flow and working capital blockage for the taxpayers.

The maximum amount for filing an appeal with the appellate authority has been reduced from Rs 25 crore CGST and Rs 25 crore SGST to Rs 20 crore CGST and Rs 20 crore SGST.

Further, the amount of pre-deposit for filing appeal with the Appellate Tribunal has been reduced from 20 per cent with a maximum amount of Rs 50 crore CGST and Rs 50 crore SGST to 10 per cent with a maximum of Rs 20 crore CGST and Rs 20 crore SGST.

Another key recommendation by the GST Council recommended amending Section 112 of the CGST Act, 2017 to allow the three-month period for filing appeals before the Appellate Tribunal to start from a date to be notified by the Government in respect of appeal/ revision orders passed before the date of said notification.

This will give sufficient time to the taxpayers to file appeal before the Appellate Tribunal in the pending cases, the GST Council said.