The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has issued important advisory about those taxpayers who wish to apply for the GST Amnesty Scheme on or before the deadline of June 30, 2025. The GST Amnesty Scheme under Section 128A grants total waiver of pending interest and penalty amount if the tax dispute amount is paid by an eligible taxpayer on or before March 31, 2025.
GSTN said on May 14, 2025, that eligible taxpayers who made the payment of the GST tax demand on or before March 31, 2025 need to upload the screenshot of the appeal case folder which clearly shows the status as ‘Appeal withdrawn’. This activity needs to be done either at the time of filing waiver applicable or if the application is already filed then editing the already filed waiver application.
Experts say that this initiative by GSTN helps taxpayers to apply for the GST Amnesty scheme without waiting for their pending litigation case to be withdrawn officially by the court or appellate authority registrar.
Chartered Accountant Bimal Jain, founder, A2Z Taxcorp says: “This is a step in the right direction as many times, the court and the appellate authority takes months if not weeks to register the withdrawal of case requests by taxpayers. So, prior to this initiative by GSTN, the taxpayers had to wait for those months or weeks until the pending GST case was officially withdrawn by the courts or appellate authority. Now the mere submission of a screenshot of withdrawal application that a taxpayer has applied for withdrawing the case is sufficient, there is no requirement of submission of proof of withdrawal request getting honoured by the courts or appellate authority. So as and when the courts or appellate authority accepts the withdrawal request, taxpayers need to attach the withdrawal order within one month in the GST portal as per Rule 164(7) of the CGST Rules. This initiative by GSTN helps taxpayers to apply for the GST Amnesty scheme without waiting for their pending litigation case to be withdrawn officially by the court or appellate authority registrar.”
Read below to know the details of what GSTN said about the GST Amnesty Scheme under Section 128A:
What did GSTN say?
According to GSTN advisory dated May 14, 2025 here is what was said:
- In the GST system, when Withdrawal application (APL 01W) for appeal is filed before issuance of final acknowledgment (APL 02) by the Appellate authority, then the system automatically withdraws the Appeal application (APL 01). In such cases, the status of the appeal application will automatically change from “Appeal submitted” to “Appeal withdrawn”.
- However, if withdrawal application is filed after issuance of final acknowledgment, then the withdrawal of such appeal is subjected to the approval of the Appellate authority. Once the Appellate authority approves the withdrawal application, the status of the Appeal application changes from “Appeal submitted” to “Appeal withdrawn”.
- Waiver scheme under Section 128A mandates that any appeal against the requisite demand order should not remain pending with Appellate authority. In both the above-mentioned cases, the status of the Appeal application is changed to “Appeal Withdrawn” which essentially fulfilled the requirement.
- While filing a waiver application or in the already filed waiver application, taxpayers need to upload the screenshot of the appeal case folder showing status as “Appeal withdrawn”.
GSTN Advisory about GST Amnesty Scheme u/s 128A
What is the GST Amnesty Scheme under section 128A?
According to chartered accountant Siddharth Surana, PGDM from IIM Bangalore, This scheme offers a one-time waiver of interest and penalties for certain cases raised under Section 73 of the CGST Act. “Cases involving erroneous refunds are, however, not covered. Taxpayers must deposit 100% of the tax demanded to avail of the waiver, which makes it crucial to assess if a case falls under the eligible categories,” he says.
According to Surana, notices eligible for this waiver are those where the demands pertain to regular non-fraudulent issues like clerical errors, delays in filing returns, short payment of tax and/ or excess availment of tax.
“The root cause of these notices should be genuine mistakes or alternate interpretation of GST legal provisions without any malafide intention. Further, only the GST notices for the period from 1 July 2017 to 31 March 2020 (both dates included) are eligible for benefits under Section 128A,” says Surana.
Surana says, the amnesty scheme under Section 128A is primarily designed to cover demands raised under Section 73, which pertains to non-fraudulent situations. “These may include errors in return filing or reporting of transactions, delays in filing, and genuine cases involving short payment of tax or excess claims of input tax credits, particularly where the issue stems from alternate interpretations of the evolving GST law,” he says.
