CESTAT - new benches

[Prateek Agrawal]

Introduction

The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (referred as “CESTAT”) was formerly known as Customs, Excise & Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (referred as “CEGAT:), which was constituted on the 11th October 1982. It was constituted to provide an independent and impartial forum to hear the appeal against orders and decisions passed by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise under the Customs Act 1962, Central Excise Act 1944 and Gold (Control) Act, 1968. Later on, the service tax appeals under the Finance Act, 1994 was included under the jurisdiction of CESTAT. The CESTAT is also empowered to hear appeals against the orders passed by the designated authority with regard to anti-dumping duties under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.

Over the period of time, the CESTAT’s procedures got developed which are partly based on the procedures adopted by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, partly on those of the High Court, and partly based on this CESTAT's own needs and experiences. Each Bench of CESTAT consists of a Judicial Member and a Technical Member.

Existing Benches

The headquarters as well as principal bench of the CESTAT is in Delhi. At present, CESTAT has three benches each in Delhi and Mumbai and one bench each at Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

Set up of New Benches

In light of pending cases in the CESTAT, the Union Cabinet on 17th October 2013 gave its approval for setting up six additional benches of the CESTAT, including three at the existing locations in New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and three new benches in Chandigarh, Allahabad and Hyderabad. With these additions, nine major cities in the country now have benches of the appellate tribunal of the three indirect tax revenue departments.

Impact

The creation of new benches of CESTAT will amount to a one-time expenditure of Rs. 3.45 crores while the recurring expenditure would be Rs. 10 crores per annum. These new benches of CESTAT will create posts for 12 members of the Tribunal (6 each for technical member and judicial member) and 98 posts for support staff.

Conclusion

By setting of new benches, it is expected that the CESTAT will dispose off the appeals as early as possible and deliver the Judgments within well defined time frame. It is also expected that after establishment of new benches, disposal of cases will increase and pendency will decrease benefiting the government and tax payers. This would help reduce travel time and expenditure in the hands of government and tax payers.