The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Judicial Cell, through Instruction No. F. No. 390/Misc/3/2019-JC dated November 5, 2024, has issued detailed guidelines for conducting personal hearings under several key tax laws. These include the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act, 2017, the Customs Act, 1962, the Central Excise Act, 1944, and Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994.
The CBIC has stated that physical hearings will only be permitted in exceptional cases, based on specific requests from the concerned party. In such instances, the adjudicating authority must document the reasons for granting a physical hearing in writing, according to a directive issued on Tuesday evening.
The amendment made on 28.07.2022 has been withdrawn following re-examination and representations received. As a result, the original instruction dated 21.08.2020 is reinstated, making it mandatory for all departmental quasi-judicial and appellate authorities to conduct personal hearings via Video Conferencing (VC) for proceedings under the specified Acts.
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