Fish Meal GST Levy under Challenge Before Supreme Court Not Ground to Skip Pre-Deposit: Madras HC [Read Order]

The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has held that merely because the issue of GST ( Goods and Services Tax ) levy on fish meal is pending before the Supreme Court is not a valid ground to waive the mandatory statutory pre-deposit for filing an appeal under the GST.

The writ petition was filed by Rehoboth Fish Meal and Oil Plant seeking a direction to the appellate authority to take on record a manually filed GST appeal that had been sent by speed post.

A demand of GST at 5% on the supply of fish meal was issued to the petitioner. The company relied on an earlier single-judge decision of the High Court that had treated fish meal as exempt from tax.

However, that ruling was subsequently reversed by a Division Bench, and the matter is presently pending before the Supreme Court in Special Leave Petitions.

On this basis, the assessee argued that since the taxability issue had not attained finality, the statutory pre-deposit should not be insisted upon.

The petitioner submitted that the same court, in a similar earlier case, had issued a direction permitting filing of appeal with 10% pre-deposit for all items except fish meal.

Based on this decision, the petitioner had filed an appeal without making any pre-deposit because the demand related only to fish meal.

The GST department rejected the appeal for non-payment of the statutory pre-deposit. Therefore, the petitioner filed the petition before the high court.

The High Court, after hearing the sides held that as a general rule, 10% statutory pre-deposit must be paid for filing appeal.

Pendency of similar issues before the Supreme Court does not justify waiver of this requirement, said the bench.

The bench of Justice Krishnan Ramasamy observed that “Normally, an appeal has to be preferred after payment of 10% of statutory pre-deposit in terms of the provisions of GST Law. Further, it was submitted by the petitioner that the issue, with regard to the levy tax on the supply of Fish Meal, has not attained its finality since a similar set of matters is still pending before the Hon'ble Apex Court. When such being the case, the payment of statutory pre-deposit cannot be dispensed with.”

Therefore, the court directed the petitioner to first pay the 10% pre-deposit and re-present the appeal through the portal. It further ordered that if there are difficulties in uploading the appeal electronically, the assessee may file the appeal in physical form after making the required pre-deposit.

“Upon filing of such appeal, the respondent shall take the said appeal on record and keep it pending until the verdict of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the aforesaid SLPs, which were filed for similar relief” court directed to the department.