Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the indirect tax administration of the union government, on Monday instructed its field officers to prepare to move the Supreme Court on all disputes where levy of goods and service tax (GST) has been questioned or stayed by any high court.

The instruction said that the decision was taken in light of the fact that many petitions are being filed in courts challenging the GST law or tax rates on certain products after the indirect tax reform was rolled out on 1 July.

The instruction also pointed out that in a few cases, a high court has granted interim relief to the petitioner staying steps to recover the disputed tax.

The instruction said that all court orders questioning or staying levy of GST, whether interim or final, are appealable before the apex court even if these are pending before the high court.

“The same needs to be challenged by way of filing a special leave petition before the Supreme Court,” CBEC told its field officers, asking them to prepare proposals to appeal high court orders “as expeditiously as possible.”

CBEC also asked senior field officers to take all measures needed to “efficaciously defend” all GST-related petitions in high courts.

GST seeks to limit tax breaks that were available under the earlier system as well as to correct the anomaly of final products getting taxed at lower rates than the raw material.