Appeal to Appellate Tribunal :
Any person aggrieved by an order passed against him under section 107 or 108 of CGST Act or SGST Act or UTGST Act may appeal to the Appellate Tribunal against such order within three months from the date on which the order sought to be appealed against is communicated to the person preferring the appeal – section 112(1) of CGST Act.
Refusal of petty appeals – The Appellate Tribunal may, in its discretion, refuse to admit any such appeal where the tax or input tax credit involved or the difference in tax or input tax credit involved or the amount of fine, fee or penalty determined by such order, does not exceed Rs 50,000 – section 112(2) of CGST Act. Really if the amount is less than Rs 50,000, it will be cheaper to pay as cost of appeal is likely to be more than that. The word used is ‘or’. Hence, even if total demand exceeds Rs 50,000, if individual amounts are less than Rs 50,000, appeal cannot be refused.
Departmental appeal – The Commissioner can direct any officer subordinate to him to apply to Appellate Tribunal within six months for determination of such points arising out of the order – section 111(3) of CGST Act. This will be considered as appeal against decision of Appellate Authority – section 112(4) of CGST Act.
Cross objection – On receipt of notice that an appeal has been preferred under this section, the party against whom the appeal has been preferred may, within forty-five days of the receipt of the notice, file a memorandum of cross-objections, verified in the prescribed manner. Cross objection can be filed even if he has not have appealed against such order. This will be considered as if it is an appeal filed by party under section 112(1) of CGST Act- section 112(5) of CGST Act.
Condonation of delay in filing appeal upto three months/45 days – Appellate Tribunal can condone delay in filing of appeal (by taxable person, applicant or departmental officer) upto three months and cross objection upto 45 days, if it is satisfied that there was sufficient cause for not presenting it within specified period – section 112(6) of CGST Act.
Appeal in prescribed form with fees – An appeal to the Appellate Tribunal shall be in the prescribed form and shall be verified in the prescribed manner and shall be accompanied by a prescribed fee. – – However, no fee is payable in case of departmental appeal – section 112(7) of CGST Act.
Mandatory pre-deposit before filing appeal before Appellate tribunal – No appeal shall be filed under section 112 (1), unless the appellant has paid–(a) in full, such part of the amount of tax, interest, fine, fee and penalty arising from the impugned order, as is admitted by him, and (b) a sum equal to twenty per cent of the remaining amount of tax in dispute, in addition to the amount paid under section 107(6), arising from the said order, in relation to which the appeal has been filed – section 112(8) of CGST Act.
This pre-deposit should be in addition to pre-deposit of 10% of tax amount made while filing appeal before Appellate Authority under section 107(6) of CGST Act.
Stay for further recovery once pre-deposit paid – Once the appellant has paid the amount as per section 112(8), the recovery proceedings for the balance amount shall be deemed to be stayed till the disposal of the appeal – section 112(9) of CGST Act.
Interest if pre-deposit is required to be refunded – Where an amount paid by the appellant under section 107(6) or section 112(8) is required to be refunded consequent to any order of the Appellate Authority or of the Appellate Tribunal, interest at the rate specified under section 56 shall be payable in respect of such refund from the date of payment of the amount till the date of refund of such amount – section 115 of CGST Act.
Fee for filing miscellaneous applications – Every application made before the Appellate Tribunal for (a) in an appeal for rectification of mistake or for any other purpose; or (b) for restoration of an appeal or an application, shall be accompanied by a prescribed fee. – section 112(10) of CGST Act.
No fee is payable if application is filed by department.