Advance ruling fee compliance under GST is mandatory; payment under the wrong tax heads makes the application non-maintainable.

An advance ruling application must be filed in the prescribed form with the fee payable under the CGST and GGST heads as required by the CGST Act and Rules and the corresponding Gujarat GST provisions. Payment of the aggregate fee under the IGST head instead of the proper CGST and GGST heads does not satisfy the statutory fee condition. Because the prescribed fee requirement was not complied with, the defect affected maintainability and the application could not be examined on merits; it was therefore liable to rejection under the statutory provisions governing admission of advance ruling applications.

---

---

Issues: Whether the advance ruling application was maintainable when the prescribed fee was not paid under the proper heads of CGST and GGST, and whether rejection was warranted on that ground.

Analysis: The application for advance ruling had to be made in the prescribed form and accompanied by the fee stipulated under Section 97(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 read with Rule 104 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, and the corresponding provisions of the Gujarat Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Gujarat Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017. The required aggregate fee was to be deposited under both the CGST and GGST heads. Since the applicant deposited the amount under the IGST head instead of the proper heads, the statutory fee requirement was not complied with. This defect went to the maintainability of the application and rendered it invalid for consideration on merits.

Conclusion: The application was not maintainable and was liable to be rejected under Section 98(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

---