Advance ruling maintainability for continuing supplies upheld where the service contract was still operative at filing.

An advance ruling application is maintainable where the underlying supply stream is ongoing on the date of filing, because the phrase "being undertaken" covers continuing contractual supplies as well as proposed supplies. A recurring canteen-service arrangement that remained operative when the application was filed fell within this scope, so the authority was required to consider the matter on merits rather than reject it for want of maintainability. The lower authority's rejection on maintainability was therefore set aside.

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Issues: Whether an application for advance ruling was maintainable where the underlying canteen-service transactions were continuing on the date of application and had not concluded.

Analysis: The expression "in relation to the supply of goods or services or both being undertaken or proposed to be undertaken by the applicant" in the advance ruling framework covers both supplies already commenced but still continuing, and supplies proposed to be undertaken. A series of recurring contractual supplies remains within the scope of "being undertaken" so long as the supply stream is ongoing on the date of the application. On the facts, the contract governing the canteen service was operative when the application was filed, and the authority was therefore required to examine the matter on merits instead of rejecting it as not maintainable.

Conclusion: The application was maintainable, and the rejection by the lower authority on maintainability was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: An advance ruling application is maintainable for a continuing series of supplies that is still subsisting on the date of application, and such ongoing supplies fall within the phrase "being undertaken" under the advance ruling provisions.

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