All about pre deposit in GST law- take away from GSTAT Cuttack Bench order.

GSTAT, Cuttack bench has considered the issues pertaining to pre-deposit as well as correct court fees to be paid for preferring an appeal in GSTAT on 08/07/2026. This has lot of take aways for all concerned on both court fees as well as the required amount of pre deposit. Let us straight away go to the facts of the case.

One show cause notice was issued under section 73. The OIO was passed imposing CGST, SGST, Interest as well as penalty. It is crucial to calculate pre deposit based on the facts as per the OIO. In the instant case, the CGST as well as SGST of 11,34,474 (total GST amount) was confirmed at adjudication stage. The entire amount is in dispute and accordingly, the taxpayer preferred the first appeal under section 107 by making a pre deposit of 10% on the disputed tax which is 1,13,447. The first appeal was admitted and the authority while passing the OIA has reduced the demand as below:

Issue one Pre deposit: As the tax payer is before GSTAT against a total demand of 2,10,894, the applicable pre deposit is a maximum of 20% of the disputed GST. To be more precise, when the first appellate authority confirms the OIO, the pre deposit is same as applicable for first appeal. In the instant case, the amount in dispute on account of GST before Tribunal is 1,02,012 and pre deposit required is 10,201 only. However as a sum of 1,13,447 is already available as pre deposit in first appeal stage itself, which is more than 20,403 which is the total pre deposit required before GSTAT, the requirement to make any additional pre deposit for second appeal was waived.

Issue Two-Court fees: The required court fee is to be calculated based on the amount of dispute in GST/ ITC. The fee payable is Rs.1,000 per lakhs or part thereof subject to a minimum amount of 5,000. and a maximum amount of 25,000.

Rule 110 (5) reads as '(5) The fees for filing of appeal or restoration of appeal shall be one thousand rupees for every one lakh rupees of tax or input tax credit involved or the difference in tax or input tax credit involved or the amount of fine, fee or penalty determined in the order appealed against, subject to a maximum of twenty five thousand rupees and a minimum of five thousand rupees'

Providedthat the fees for filing of an appeal in respect of an order not involving any demand of tax, interest, fine, fee or penalty shall be five thousand rupees'.

In the instant case as only Rs.3,000 was paid as court fees initially as against the required minimum amount of Rs.5,000 the counsel for petitioner agreed to make a further payment of Rs.2,000 for admission of the appeal.

Case reference: Manoranjan Dash Versus Commissioner, Odisha, Commissionerate Of CT GST & Ors. - 2026 (7) TMI 829 - GSTAT CUTTACK.

Summary: In case there is no relief granted at first appeal level, there is a need to make the second pre deposit which shall be equal to the first pre deposit. In case there is a partial relief in first appeal, the second pre deposit to be recalculated at 20% of the disputed GST as per the order of the first appellate authority which reduces the requirements on pre deposit before GSTAT as explained below:

Court fees payable

The Cuttack bench has discussed the issues on required pre deposit as well as applicable court fees at length and the learnings based on the above case law shall be helpful to all concerned. The above examples may help to correctly decide the applicable pre deposit as well as court fees.

Despite the functioning of GSTAT and the high courts are suggesting to choose efficacious alternate remedy, there are few cases where writs are admitted in taxpayer favour even now. We may see a sharp reduction in number of writs on GST in the days to come and expect more and more good orders from the benches of GSTAT in the coming months.