Filing of GST Appeal: Requirement to submit hard copy of “certified order”

[Kashish Gupta]

Recently, the GST Council’s 48th meeting was held, in which it was recommended to provide clarity on the requirement of submission of the certified copy of the order appealed against and the issuance of final acknowledgment by the appellate authority, to facilitate timely processing of appeals and ease the compliance burden for the appellants. Accordingly, rule 108(3) has been amended vide Not. No. 26/2022-CT dated 26.12.2022.

Existing and Rule 108(3)

Existing Law	Amended Law
A certified copy of the decision or order appealed against shall be submitted within seven days of filing the appeal under sub-rule (1) and a final acknowledgement, indicating appeal number shall be issued thereafter in FORM GST APL-02 by the Appellate Authority or an officer authorised by him in this behalf:	Where the decision or order appealed against is uploaded on the common portal, a final acknowledgment, indicating appeal number, shall be issued in FORM GST APL-02 by the Appellate Authority or an officer authorised by him in this behalf and the date of issue of the provisional acknowledgment shall be considered as the date of filing of appeal:
Provided that where the certified copy of the decision or order is submitted within seven days from the date of filing the FORM GST APL-01, the date of filing of the appeal shall be the date of the issue of the provisional acknowledgement and where the said copy is submitted after seven days, the date of filing of the appeal shall be the date of the submission of such copy.	Provided that where the decision or order appealed against is not uploaded on the common portal, the appellant shall submit a self-certified copy of the said decision or order within a period of seven days from the date of filing of FORM GST APL-01 and a final acknowledgment, indicating appeal number, shall be issued in FORM GST APL-02 by the Appellate Authority or an officer authorised by him in this behalf, and the date of issue of the provisional acknowledgment shall be considered as the date of filing of appeal: Provided further that where the said self-certified copy of the decision or order is not submitted within a period of seven days from the date of filing of FORM GST APL-01, the date of submission of such copy shall be considered as the date of filing of appeal.

Effect of Amendment

1. The amendments give clarity on the manner of issuing orders. The assessing officer issuing a summary of the order in specified format e.g., Form GST DRC-07, Form GST RFD-06, shall also issue a speaking or detailed order. The functionality to issue summary order also provides bandwidth to upload supporting documents which can be a copy of speaking order.
2. It has now been provided that if a copy of speaking order is uploaded along with summary order, then the appellant is not required to submit a hard copy of certified order in the office of appellate authority within a period of seven days. In such cases, appeal filed online shall be a sufficient compliance.
3. However, if a copy of speaking order is not uploaded, then the appellant is required to submit a self-certified copy of the order within a period of seven days from the date of online filing of appeal. If the self-certified copy of said order is submitted after a period of seven days, then the date of submission of self-certified copy of order shall be the date of filing of appeal.
4. The controversy over meaning of term “certified order” has been resolved and it has been specified that “Self-certified copy” of the order shall be submitted by the appellant. This would save the efforts involved in obtaining copy of order duly certified by the officer.

Paksh Remarks

1. The benefit of this rule must be allowed on appeals already filed given that beneficial amendments are always retrospective in nature.
2. In cases where appeals were dismissed for fault of submitting certified copy of order within seven days of online filing and where the copy of order was uploaded on common portal, adequate relief(s) by way of re-storing the appeal to its original number shall be allowed by next appellate authority.
3. In case copy of order is not uploaded on common portal and unnecessary delays are made by the office of proper officer, it is advisable to write an email or submit a letter requesting to serve a copy of speaking order. In such cases, in our view, period of filing of appeal shall start from date of service of speaking copy of the order.

(Author is a tax consultant and can be reached at kashish@pakshlegal.in. Views expressed in this article are strictly personal.)