The Bombay High Court has held that appeal cannot be dismissed alleging non-payment of pre-deposit when provisional acknowledgement receipt generated on GST portal.
The bench of Justice M.S. Sonak and Justice Jitendra Jain has observed that in the memorandum of appeal, the amount of pre-deposit paid has been specified under S.No.15 of Form APL-01. The Petition has the screenshots of the Electronic Credit Ledger, and the Electronic Cash Ledger of the Petitioner downloaded from the GSTN portal. The document shows that the Petitioner has made a payment of Rs. 3,20,22,340 from the Electronic Credit Ledger and a payment of Rs. 1,22,33,134/- from the Electronic Cash Ledger.
The bench noted that the Petition contained the system- generated provisional acknowledgement of the appeal, which is generated automatically by the Respondents’ portal once an assessee files an appeal. This acknowledgement itself shows that the requisite pre-deposit has been made.
The Petitioner has claimed that they had paid a pre- deposit Amount of Rs. 4,42,55,474/- (10% of the disputed tax amount) when filing their appeal before the department.
In the memorandum of appeal i.e., Form APL-01 itself, the amount of pre-deposit paid has been specified under S.No.15 of Form APL-01. Further, Exhibit of the Petition are screenshots of the Electronic Credit Ledger, and the Electronic Cash Ledger of the Petitioner downloaded from the GSTN portal. This document shows that the Petitioner has made a payment of Rs. 3,20,22,340/- from the Electronic Credit Ledger on 12.03.2024 and a payment of Rs. 1,22,33,134/- from the Electronic Cash Ledger on 12.03.2024 totalling to Rs. 4,42,55,474/-.
Exhibit to the Petition is the system-generated provisional acknowledgement of the appeal, which is generated automatically by the Respondents’ portal once an assessee files an appeal. This acknowledgement itself shows that the requisite pre-deposit has been made. Hence, the Petitioner had complied with the necessary pre-deposit required in Section 107(6) of the CGST Act.
The court held that the Petitioner had complied with the necessary pre-deposit required in Section 107(6) of the CGST Act.
What is Section 107(6) of the CGST Act?
Section 107(6) of the CGST Act states that no appeal shall be filed, unless the appellant has paid in full, such part of the amount of tax, interest, fine, fee and penalty arising from the impugned order, as is admitted by him; and a sum equal to ten per cent. of the remaining amount of tax in dispute arising from the said order, [subject to a maximum of twenty-five crore rupees,] [Inserted by Act No. 31 of 2018, dated 29.8.2018.]in relation to which the appeal has been filed.
Case Details
Case Title: Delphi World Money Ltd. Versus The Union of India
Case No.: Writ Petition (L) No. 28914 Of 2024
Date: 11 November 2024
Counsel For Petitioner: Sriram Sridharan
Counsel For Respondent: Karan Adik
