ADVANCE RULING UNDER GST MAHARASHTRA

As per section 95 of CGST/SGST Law and section 12 of UTGST law, ‘advance ruling’ means a decision provided by the authority or the Appellate Authority to an applicant on matters or on questions specified in section 97(2) or 100(1) of CGST/SGST Act as the case may be, in relation to the supply of goods and/or services proposed to be undertaken or being undertaken by the applicant.

Advance Ruling can be sought for the following questions:
(a) classification of any goods or services or both;
(b) applicability of a notification issued under provisions of the GST Act(s);
(c) determination of time and value of supply of goods or services or both;
(d) admissibility of input tax credit of tax paid or deemed to have been paid;
(e) determination of the liability to pay tax on any goods or services under the Act;
(f) whether applicant I s required to be registered under the Act;
(g) whether any particular thing done by the applicant with respect to any goods or services amounts to or results in a supply of goods or services, within the meaning of that term.

‘Authority for advance ruling’ (AAR) shall comprise one member of CGST and one member of SGST/UGST. They will be appointed by the Central and State government respectively.

No, any person registered under the GST Act(s) or desirous of obtaining registration can be an applicant. (Section 95(b)).

An applicant can apply for advance ruling even before taking up a transaction (proposed supply of goods or services) or in respect of a supply which is being undertaken. The only restriction is that the question being raised is already not pending or decided in any proceedings in the case of applicant.

As per Section 98(6) of CGST/SGST Act, the Authority shall pronounce its ruling in writing within 90 days from the date of receipt of application.

Appellate authority for advance ruling (AAAR), shall be constituted under the SGST Act or UTGST Act and such AAAR shall be deemed to be the Appellate Authority under the CGST Act in respect of the respective state or Union Territory. An applicant, or the jurisdictional officer, if aggrieved by any advance ruling, may appeal to the Appellate Authority.

There will be one AAR and AAAR for each State.

The law does not provide for a fixed time period for which the ruling shall apply. Instead, in section 103 (2), it is provided that advance ruling shall be binding till the period when the law, facts or circumstances supporting the original advance ruling have changed. Thus, a ruling shall continue to be in force so long as the transaction continues and so long as there is no change in law, facts or circumstances.

Section 103 provides that an advance ruling pronounced by AAR or AAAR shall be binding only on the applicant who sought it in respect of any matter referred to in 97 (2) and on the jurisdictional tax authority of the applicant. This clearly means that an advance ruling is not applicable to similarly placed taxable persons in the State. It is only limited to the person who has applied for an advance ruling.

Section 104(1) provides that an advance ruling shall be held to be void ab initio if the AAR or AAAR finds that the advance ruling was obtained by the applicant by fraud or suppression of material facts or misrepresentation of facts. In such a situation, all the provisions of the GST Act(s) shall apply to the applicant as if such advance ruling had never been made (but excluding the period when advance ruling was given and up to the period when the order declaring it to be void is issued). An order declaring advance ruling to be void can be passed only after hearing the applicant.

Application has to be rejected if the question raised in the application is already pending or decided in any proceedings in the case of applicant under any of the provisions of GST Act(s) if the application is rejected, it should be by way of a speaking order giving the reasons for rejection.