GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL COMMITTEES UNDER GST LAW

[Mr. M. GOVINDARAJAN]

Introduction

Since the inception of goods and services tax, the registered persons are facing many problems and challenges in complying with the provisions of the Act and the rules made there under. The GST portal is the main source for the problems caused to the registered persons. 

The glitches in the system prevent the registered persons in filing the returns in regular time for which the due dates for various returns have been postponed now and then.

GST grievance portal

The GST portal has grievance redressal portal for GST. The Portal has been designed for lodging complaints by taxpayers and other stakeholders. They can lodge Complaint here indicating issues or problems faced by them while working on GST portal instead of sending emails to the Helpdesk. It has been designed in a manner that the user can explain issues faced and uploads screenshots of pages where they faced the problem, for quick redressal of grievances.

This portal has the following advantages-

• to enable the user to lodge his complaint and raise tickets himself;
• to provide all required information and reducing to and fro communication between helpdesk and the tax payers, helping to reach a faster resolution;
• to enable the tax payer to check the progress of resolution of his complaint by using the ticket number (acknowledgement number generated after a complaint is lodged).
• to check the resolution comments in case the complaint/ticket is closed.

Grievance Redressal Committee

GST Council, in its 38^th meeting held on 18.12.2019 decided to establish a structured grievance redressal mechanism for the taxpayers to tackle the grievances on GST related issues. The issue may be general or specific in nature.  The council approved for the constitution of grievance redressal committee at Zone/State level.  On the basis of the decision of the Council the Board issued instructions vide F.No. 20/10/16/2018-GST (Pt.3), dated 24.12.2019.

The Grievance and Redressal Committee shall consist of both Central tax and State tax officers, representatives of trade and industry and other GST stakeholders.

Committee members

The Committee shall consist of the following members-

• Zone Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Central Tax – Co-Chair;
• Chief Commissioner/Commissioner of State Tax – Co-Chair;
• Representative of various Trade Associations – up to 12 members;
• Representatives of prominent Associations  of Tax professionals like Chartered Accountants, Tax Advocates, Tax practitioners etc., - up to 4 members;
• Nodal Officer of ITGRC of the Central Tax and Nodal Officer of ITGRC of State Tax;
• Representative of GSTN handling the concerned Zone/State;
• Any other member with the permission of the Co-chairs;
• Additional/Joint Commissioner of office of Zonal Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Central Tax and an Officer nominated by the Chief Commissioner/Commissioner of State Tax – Secretaries;

For each Zone/Stare there will be on redressal committee is to be established. If there are more than one State corresponding to a single Central Tax Zone the Committee shall be constituted at a State level for each State. Where there is more than one Central Tax Zone in a State, the Committee shall be constituted at Zonal level.

The Committee of the Zone/State shall be constituted by the Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Central Tax of the concerned Zone in consultation with the Chief Commissioner/Commissioner of the concerned State. 

Tenure

The Grievance Redressal Committee shall be constituted for a period of 2 years. The tenure of the members in the Committee shall be for a period of two years.

Meeting

he Council shall meet once every quarter or more frequently as decided by the Co-Chairs. If any member of the Committee is absent for 3 consecutive meetings without adequate reasons, will be deemed to have been withdrawn from the Committee. Such place will be filled by fresh nomination by the Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of Central Tax in consultation with the Chief Commissioner of the State Tax.

Functions of the Committee

The following are the functions of the Committee-

• to examine and resolve all the grievances and issues being faced by the tax payers including procedural difficulties and information technology related issued pertaining to GST, both of specific and general nature;
• to refer any issue requiring a change in Act/Rules/Notification/Form/Circular/Instruction etc., to the GST Council Secretariat and the relevant Policy Wing of the CBIC;
• to refer any matter related to information technology related issue pertaining to GST Portal, to GSTN.

The Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner shall ensure proper functioning of the Committee for effective redressal of the GST related grievances of the tax payer.

Procedure

• The stakeholders will send their grievances to the Secretary of the Committee.
• The Secretary shall place the same before the Committee.
• The Secretary shall also submit a quarterly progress report to the GST Council Secretariat as well as the Policy Wing of CBIC.

GSTN Portal

The GSTN shall develop a portal for recording the grievances and their disposal. The Co-Chairs shall ensure timely entry of the grievances and update the status of the disposal in the portal. The nodal officers of GSTN, Policy Wing and GST Council Secretariat will also be able to update status of action taken at their ends. The details of action taken on all issues will be displayed on the portal, which shall be available for viewing to all stakeholders to check the status of the resolution.

It has been directed that the orders for the constitution of the Zonal/State level Grievance Redressal Committee may be issued at the earliest possible and latest by 10^th January, 2020.