Union Finance Minister inaugurated GST Appellate Tribunal

Union Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman formally inaugurated the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) in New Delhi on 24 September, 2025. Justice Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mishra is the President of GSTAT.

• Union Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman formally inaugurated the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) in New Delhi on 24 September, 2025, which is a transformative step in India’s indirect tax ecosystem.
• Union Minister of State for Finance Mr. Pankaj Chaudhary and GSTAT President Justice Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mishra attended this inauguration ceremony.
• The establishment of GSTAT strengthens the institutional framework for dispute resolution under GST and provides a uniform, transparent and efficient appellate mechanism for taxpayers.
• Guided by the principle of “Citizen Devo Bhava,” GSTAT is expected to operate with simplicity, digital integration and citizen-first service.
• Highlighting the operations of GSTAT as an important milestone, the Union Finance Minister said that the program which began in 2017 as “One Nation, One Tax, One Market” is now evolving as “One Nation, One Platform for Fairness and Certainty.”
• Highlighting the three main dimensions of GSTAT’s design, the Revenue Secretary emphasized the three ‘S’: Structure, Scale and Synergy. Its structure combines judicial and technical expertise.
• The GST Council, in its 56th meeting on 3 September, 2025, had decided that GSTAT would start accepting appeals before the end of September and its hearings would begin before the end of December this year.

President and Members

• In May, 2024, the government appointed Justice (Retd.) Sanjay Kumar Mishra as the President of the Principal Bench of GSTAT.
• In August, 2025, the government appointed retired Allahabad High Court judge Mayank Kumar Jain as Judicial Member of the Bench. Retired IAS officer A Venu Prasad and retired IRS officer Anil Kumar Gupta will be Technical Member (State) and Technical Member (Centre) respectively.

Structure and Reach of GSTAT

• GSTAT will have a Principal Bench in New Delhi and 31 State Benches at 45 locations across India, ensuring national reach.
• About 90% of cases filed before GSTAT will be single-bench cases, which will not involve complex legal questions and will involve tax liability of less than ₹50 lakh. Each Bench will consist of,
• 2 Judicial Members
• 1 Technical Member (Centre)
• 1 Technical Member (State)
• This structure reflects the spirit of cooperative federalism and is designed to deliver balanced and impartial decisions by combining legal and technical expertise from both levels of government.

GSTAT E-Court Portal

• A major innovation during the launch was the unveiling of the GSTAT E-Court Portal, developed by the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Key features - e-filing of appeals, digital hearings, online case tracking, case management tools.
• To facilitate transition, taxpayers can file appeals till 30 June, 2026, giving sufficient time for preparation to all stakeholders, including MSMEs and individual taxpayers.
• Currently, 4.83 lakh cases are pending before the appellate authorities and all these cases are expected to be filed before GSTAT.