The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribuna

The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal* (CESTAT) was formerly known as Customs, Excise & Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (in short CEGAT), was constituted on the 11th October 1982, and will be completing 25 years of its existence shortly. During this period procedure for dealing with various aspects of the Tribunal's work have been evolved. These are partly based on the procedures adopted by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, partly on those of the High Court, and partly based on this Tribunal's own needs and experiences. The CESTAT has brought out a comprehensive Manual, which contains a number of office orders prescribing procedures governing, filing and hearing of appeals, which have been issued from time to time. In this Office Manual an attempt has been made to set out systematically all-important aspects of CESTAT procedure, taking into account existing orders, and filling gaps wherever there are no specific orders.CESTAT was created to provide an independent forum to hear the appeals against orders and decisions passed by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise under the Customs Act, 1962, Central Excise Act, 1944, Finance Act 94 relating to Service Tax. The Tribunal is also empowered to hear the appeals against orders passed by the designated authority with regard to Anti Dumping Duties under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The sanctioned strength of the Members (including President and two Vice Presidents) is 21.It has 3 benches in Delhi and 4 benches in Mumbai and one each at Kolkata, Chennai and Banglore. Each Bench consists of a Judicial Member and a Technical Member. With a view to have expeditious disposal of small cases, a Bench of Single Member deals with the matters not exceeding Rs.10 Lakhs is also constituted. Except in the matters relating to classification and valuation of goods, the Tribunal is the final Appellate Authority though a reference to the High Court can be made on a question of Law. In classification and valuation matters, the appeal against the order of the Tribunal lies only to the Hon’ble Supreme Court.The CESTAT strives to dispose off the appeals as early as possible and deliver the Judgments within well defined time frame. To have a transparency in the system, computerization of CESTAT is underway.