Two urgent as well as important submissions to the GST Council.

Today morning I had gone through the order of the division bench of the Telangana High Court passed on 08/06/2026 as reported in 2026 (6) TMI 634 in the matter of Divya Textile Industries Vs. The Assistant Commissioner, Telangana. It is observed from the counter affidavit filed by the State Tax Authorities that the pressure on the adjudication officers during the month which happens to be the last month for passing OIO either under Section 73 or 74 is too high.  In this particular case, the said assistant commissioner was given charge of two circles which over burdened him and hence, the OIO which was pertaining to the financial year 2019-2020 under section 73 was passed only on 02/09/2024 as against the permissible date on 31/08/2024.

The counter affidavit of the Telangana State Government reads as “6. It is respectfully submitted that for Financial Year 2019-20 the time limit for passing orders under Section 73 stood extended up to 31.08.2024. At the relevant time, Shri Chisteshwar  Polispatlola was functioning in his regular post as Assistant Commissioner, Rajendranagar-1 Circle and simultaneously holding Full Additional Charge (FAC) of Vanasthalipuram-1 Circle, as per order dated 18.05.2024 issued by Joint Commissioner. Accordingly, all pending orders of both circles had to be consecutively processed and uploaded using the same digital authentication before midnight of 31.08.2024. As per the administrative compilation for August 2024, Rajendranagar-1 Circle reflected 336 orders and Vanasthalipuram-1 Circle reflected 158 order entries, totalling 494; between 21.08.2024 and 31.08.2024 alone the corresponding figures were 264 and 123, totalling 387; and on

31.08.2024 itself 36 and 29 orders respectively were passed till the last hour. The petitioner’s DRC-07 was processed/uploaded within the said time- bound window”.

This is the information available now in the public domain which speaks on the quality of the adjudication orders. Though this information pertains to Telangana State, no state is an exception as all GST officials all over India behave in a similar manner. The following table shows the time taken for passing one OIO.

It is really astonishing to note that the learned assistant commissioner who was in a position to pass 16 orders in 16 hours (assuming that he worked for 16 hours daily) has improved his efficiency to pass 35 orders per day during the last 11 days of August 2024. The efficiency to pass OIO on 31/08/2024 has improved significantly well to 65 per day meaning thereby that it takes around 15 minutes only to pass one order. This facts speaks on the quality of the adjudication proceedings.

The real issue before the high court was that the OIO was passed only on 02/09/2024 as against the deadline of 31/08/2024. Moreover, the order was passed without any personal hearing and the first appeal highlighting the violations was also rejected on 23/02/2026 prompting the taxpayer to go for writ. The High Court ruled as “On facts and after going through the order dated 02.09.2024 for the Financial Period April, 2019 – March, 2020 vide Reference No. ZD360924002306K, it is apparent that the impugned order has been passed after expiry of the period of limitation i.e., 31.08.2024 for the tax period 2019-20. The Department in its counter affidavit has explained that it was occasion on account of the huge number of orders that the Proper Officer had to pass for two Circles. The Department has also explained in its counter affidavit that on the basis of the subsequent explanation furnished by the petitioner, on the major issue there is no revenue loss. The question of limitation goes to the root of the jurisdiction to pass an order imposing tax liability upon the assessee.  Since the order-in-original has been passed and apparently uploaded after the last date for passing orders by 31.08.2024 for the tax period 2019-20, it cannot be sustained in the eye of law. The appellate authority has also failed to appreciate the jurisdictional infirmity in the order-in-original while dismissing the appeal on grounds of delay. The impugned order-in-original and the order-in-appeal are accordingly set aside”.

Appeal 1 to GST Council: The limits set at 20 lakhs for services and 40 lakhs for goods are too low for a businessman to comply the GST laws where there are several procedural requirements to be strictly followed to avoid any legal action by the GST officials. In a like manner, with a small limit of 20 lakhs and 40 lakhs, the cases are too many before the jurisdictional officers and things become unmanageable when additional charge is also handed over. In order to help taxpayer as well as tax officials, it is submitted that these limits may please be enhanced to 50 Lakhs for services and 100 Lakhs for goods with effect from 01/04/2027. This measure, if implemented shall be a win -win  situation for both taxpayer as well as tax officials. This shall not result in any revenue loss as the time spent on small cases is available now to focus on cases like the one decided by the Honourable Supreme Court recently on online games which may bring revenue in Lakhs of Crore to the Government on a single issue.

Appeal 2 to the GST Council:  As at 14.00 hours as on 12/06/2026, only less that 16,000 e appeals have been filed since December 2025 and only less that 4,000 e appeals have been filed during the current month before the GSTAT. Considering the huge set up of more than 30 benches of GSTAT all over India and a big team of members and support staff having started to work, the deadline of 30/06/2026 should not be an impediment to allow a taxpayer to file the appeal, in case it is otherwise a deserving one. Hence, it is appealed that the deadline may please be extended up to 31/12/2026 covering all OIA dated up to 30/06/2026 for filing the appeal under section 112 of the CGST Act  which has to be effected prior to 30/06/2026.