GST payment relief: GSTN eliminates duplicate charge in appeal filings

For years, GST-registered taxpayers found themselves stuck in a frustrating loop, paying tax once during investigation, and then being asked to pay again just to file an appeal. It wasn’t a legal requirement. It wasn’t even intentional. It was a system gap. Now, that gap has finally been closed.

In a move being widely seen as taxpayer-friendly, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has fixed a long-standing technical issue that forced many businesses into effectively making double GST payments.'

The solution comes in the form of a revamped mechanism using Form GST DRC-03A — a tool that allows previously paid amounts to be properly adjusted against official tax demands.

The problem that refused to go away Under GST rules, taxpayers filing an appeal against a tax order must deposit 10% of the disputed tax as a precondition. But in many cases, businesses had already paid part of the tax, often “under protest”, during investigations using Form GST DRC-03. Logically, that payment should have counted. Technically, it didn’t.

This is because DRC-03 payments were not linked to any specific Demand ID in the GST system, and the portal failed to recognise them while calculating the mandatory pre-deposit. The result? Taxpayers were prompted to pay again — even when they had already paid more than required.

The fix: linking payments to reality

The newly clarified DRC-03A mechanism changes that. Tax experts explain that the form acts as a bridge between voluntary payments made earlier and the official demand raised later.

By linking DRC-03 payments to a Demand ID, the system can now correctly “net off” those amounts while calculating the pre-deposit for appeals. In simple terms, what you’ve already paid will finally be counted.

“This was a much-needed fix,” said tax professionals, noting that the earlier system created unnecessary financial strain and procedural confusion. With DRC-03A, taxpayers can allocate prior payments against specific orders, ensuring that only the remaining balance, if any, needs to be paid.

Source : https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/money/gst-drc-03a-form-avoid-double-payment-l2rzflpz