GST council sets up grievance redressal committees at zonal, state level

The GST Council on Wednesday announced setting up the Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) to resolve issues related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The committee will consist of both central tax and state tax officers, representatives of trade and industry and other GST stakeholders.

The GST Council, in its 38th meeting, had approved constitution of 'Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC)' at Zonal and State level for speedy redressal of grievances of taxpayers pertaining to tax related issues and the related procedure.

The committee will meet once every quarter or more frequently as decided by the co-chairs. The stakeholders will send their grievances or suggestions to the secretary of the committee, who will place the same before the committee. Further, the secretary of the committee will also submit a quarterly progress report to the GST Council Secretariat as well as to the GST Policy Wing, CBIC.

The grievance committee will be constituted for a period of two years and the term of each member will be for the same period. For time bound handling of grievances and accountability, GSTN will develop a portal for recording all such grievances (including their scanned images) and their disposal.

Constitution of the grievance committee

• Zonal Principal Chief Commissioner/ Chief Commissioner of Central Tax (Co-chair).
• Chief Commissioner/ Commissioner of State Tax (Co-chair).
• Representatives of various Trade Associations - up to 12 in number.
• Representatives of prominent Associations of Tax Professionals like Chartered Accountants, Tax Advocates, Tax Practitioners etc. -up to 4 in number.
• Nodal officer of ITGRC of the Central Tax and Nodal officer of ITGRC of the 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 of the GRC.

Functions and mandate of the Committee:

• Examining and resolving all the grievances and issues being faced by the taxpayers, including procedural difficulties and IT related issues pertaining to GST, both of specific and general nature.
• Referring 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.
• Referring any matter related to IT related issue pertaining to GST Portal, to GSTN.