Authority for advance ruling Section 96 - GST Ready Reckoner - GST

Authority For advance Ruling Deemed Authority As Per provisions of Section 96 Authority for advance ruling for the purposes of this Act, the Authority for advance ruling constituted under the provisions of a State Goods and Services Tax Act or Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act shall be deemed to be the Authority for advance ruling in respect of that State or Union territory. Rule 103 CGST Rules provides for Qualification and appointment of members of the Authority for Advance Ruling. The Government shall appoint officers not below the rank of Joint Commissioner as members of the Authority for Advance Ruling. AAR to be located in each state 1. The AAR shall be located in each State/Union Territory constituted under the provisions of State Goods and Services Tax Act and Union Territory Goods and Services tax Act. The Government shall appoint officers not below the rank of Joint Commissioner as member of the AAR. 2. As per Section 96 of the State GST Acts, the State Government may, on the recommendation of the Council, notify any AAR located in another State to act as the Authority for Advance Ruling for the State. Constitution of members 3. Further, the AAR shall consist of one member from amongst the officers of Central tax and one member from amongst the officers of State tax, to be appointed by the Central Government and the State Government respectively. The qualifications, method of appointment of the members and the terms and conditions of their services shall lay down in the SGST Rules. It is noteworthy that the Advance ruling Authorities constituted under Income tax act include various members related to the judiciary however, under GST, the Authorities of Advance rulings are the members related to administration department. Jurisdiction applicable to concerned state 4. As the AAR and the Appellate Authority have been instituted under the respective State / Union Territory Act and not the Central Act, the ruling given by the AAR and AAAR will be applicable only within the jurisdiction of the concerned state or union territory. Thus, an advance ruling in case of an applicant in Kerala cannot be made applicable to another division of the same company located in Karnataka. In case of contradiction in decision among states 5. Suppose, a company is having multiple registrations across India, it has applied for advance ruling in two different states on the same issue. How will the company account for the issue, if the decisions of the two authorities are contradictory to each other? 6. Thus, it is important for an applicant to weigh his options before seeking an Advance Ruling, however attractive a proposition it may seem to be. Given that Section 103 states that an advance ruling shall have a binding effect on the applicant and the officers in respect of the applicant, the applicant should analyse the impact of an advance ruling not going in his favour. Note: No advance ruling in case of difference in opinion Difference of opinion among members of AAR - If there is difference of opinion among members of AAR, they refer the point/s to AAAR for hearing. If there is difference of opinion at that level also, then it shall be deemed that no advance ruling can be given