Extension of Time Limit for Filing Appeals before GSTAT

The Ministry of Finance has issued a Notification on 30th June 2026, to notify all taxpayers that 31st July 2026 will be the last date for filing appeals/applications before the GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) in respect of – (i) appellate orders communicated to taxpayers before 1st May 2026, and (ii) appellate orders passed before 1st February 2026 in case of departmental applications. Appeals/applications pertaining to orders communicated or passed on or after the aforesaid dates shall be governed by the normal limitation period prescribed under Section 112 of the CGST Act. The notification supersedes the earlier Notification dated 17th September 2025. The said notification is issued under Section 112(1) read with Section 112(3) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

Section 112 of the CGST Act provides the statutory framework for appeals before the GST Appellate Tribunal. Under Section 112(1), a person aggrieved by an order passed by the Appellate Authority is required to file an appeal before the Tribunal within three months from the date of communication of the order. Similarly, under Section 112(3), the tax authorities may file an application before the Tribunal within six months from the date of the order passed by the Appellate Authority. Since the GSTAT was not operational, the Government had been issuing notifications extending the limitation period to safeguard the right to appeal.

Earlier, the Government had, vide Notification dated 17th September 2025, prescribed a common timeline for filing appeals before the GSTAT as a transitional measure, considering that the Tribunal was not operational. With the GSTAT becoming functional and a significant number of appeals remaining to be filed, the Government has now superseded the earlier notification and extended the last date to 31st July 2026, while prescribing revised cut-off dates beyond which the statutory limitation under Section 112 shall apply.

The extension has been granted pursuant to representations received from various stakeholders highlighting technical difficulties caused by the heavy rush of filings on the GSTAT portal. Although the filing timeline had been notified well in advance in September 2025, nearly 30,000 appeals were filed during the last fifteen days alone, with daily filings peaking at around 5,500 appeals. Taxpayers are advised to plan their appeal filings well in advance and avoid waiting until the last date to mitigate portal-related and procedural issues.

Please refer the attached notification for your reference.

Source: Ministry of Finance