CESTAT BENCH IN HYDERABAD BY MARCH, 2015

Justice Goda Raghuram, President, CESTAT said on Saturday in Hyderabad that the Tribunals proposed  Bench in Hyderabad is likely to start functioning in two months.

It is part of such Benches – three of them at new locations – sanctioned by the Centre and set to benefit trade and industry in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In the absence of a Bench, appeals from the States against orders and decisions of Commissioners of Customs, Excise and Service Tax are taken to the Bench in Bengaluru.

Justice Raghuram who was addressing a seminar organised by the Federation of Telangana and AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry here, said the Bench is likely to be located at a government building here. Besides Hyderabad, new CESTAT Benches are being set up in Chandigarh and Allahabad, while New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai are getting an additional Bench each.

The six Benches will help reduce CESTAT BENCH IN HYDERABAD BY MARCH, 2015 of appeals. Around one lakh appeals have been pending before the Benches and over Rs. 2 lakh crore revenue was in the pipeline of adjudication. To queries from press persons later, he said of the 13,500 pending appeals before the Bengaluru Bench, whose jurisdiction included Karnataka and Kerala, 6,300 – 6,500 that were from Telangana and AP would be shifted to Hyderabad. The recruitment process for the six Benches was in an advanced stage, he said, adding there is a lot of infrastructure to be created since its a critical level institution.

The Hindu