GST BREAKING: Advisory on Payment of pre-deposit while filing of appeal before First Appellate authority

GSTN has issued an advisory regarding the payment of pre-deposit while filing an appeal before the First Appellate Authority under GST. The clarification addresses issues faced by taxpayers who had already made voluntary payments during the investigation stage through Form GST DRC-03, but were still prompted by the GST portal to pay the pre-deposit again while filing appeals.

The advisory explains that when a demand order is issued, a Demand ID is created in the Electronic Liability Register on the GST portal. Payments made using the “Payment towards Demand” option are automatically linked to this Demand ID. However, payments made through Form GST DRC-03 are not automatically linked, which is why the system may not consider them while calculating the required pre-deposit amount.

To resolve this issue, GSTN has advised taxpayers to file Form GST DRC-03A to link payments made through DRC-03 with the relevant demand order. Once the payment is mapped to the Demand ID through DRC-03A, the GST system will recognize the amount and will not require the taxpayer to pay the pre-deposit again while filing the appeal.