DRC-03 Payments Must Be Linked via DRC-03A for Appeal Pre-deposit Recognition: GSTN
Taxpayers must ensure that DRC-03 payments are mapped via DRC-03A before filing appeals; otherwise, the portal will still ask for a pre-deposit.
Taxpayers across India have raised concerns about the Goods and Services Tax (GST)portal’s handling of pre-deposit requirements for appeals. Even after making voluntary payments during the investigation, many are asked to pay again when filing appeals with the First Appellate Authority. In a recent advisory, GSTN explained the root of the issue: payments made through Form...
Taxpayers across India have raised concerns about the Goods and Services Tax (GST)portal’s handling of pre-deposit requirements for appeals. Even after making voluntary payments during the investigation, many are asked to pay again when filing appeals with the First Appellate Authority.
In a recent advisory, GSTN explained the root of the issue: payments made through Form GST DRC‑03 are not automatically linked to any demand order in the Electronic Liability Register. As a result, the system does not recognize these amounts when calculating the mandatory pre‑deposit for appeals.
When a demand order such as Form GST DRC-07 is issued, a Demand ID is automatically created in Part II of the Electronic Liability Register on the GST portal. If the taxpayer pays using the “Payment towards Demand” option, the portal directly adjusts the payment against that Demand ID.
In contrast, payments made through Form GST DRC-03 are not linked to the Demand ID, and therefore do not show up as adjusted against the demand in the liability register.
The advisory notes “Any payment made through Form GST DRC‑03 is not automatically recognized by the GST system against any specific Demand ID. Therefore, such payments are not considered by the system while calculating the pre‑deposit amount required for filing an appeal.”
To resolve this GSTN has introduced Form GST DRC‑03A, which allows taxpayers to link voluntary payments made via DRC‑03 to the relevant Demand ID. Once the payment appears in the liability register and is recognized during appeal filing. This ensures that taxpayers are not asked to pay twice.
In practice:
- DRC‑03 - Voluntary payment (not linked).
- DRC‑03A - Linking mechanism (maps payment to demand order).
This clarification is very important for taxpayers as it streamlines the appeal process and it also prevents duplicate pre-disposit requirements . It will also reduce unnecessary financial burden.
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