Section 108 of the CGST Act, 2017—Court Fee for Appeals-- The petitioner prayed for quashing the demand raised for returning the appeal preferred against the assessment order to be deficient of court fees, i.e., 1% of the disputed amount and with a further prayer of declaring imposition of levy of additional court fee would not apply in the field of GST laws. The court fees payable in respect of the appeals or revisions before the notification was 0.5% of the amount involved in the dispute. The constitutional validity of Section 76 of the Court Fees Act by notification of 2002 was under challenge and this Court upheld the validity of the notification. It was held that the additional court fees under section 76 will be additional to the fee payable on the appeal. The petitioner submitted that additional court fees of 1% should not be leviable in the appeals filed under Section 108 of the Act arising out of decisions or orders passed under the Act. The Court observed that the power to grant exemption is a part of the sovereign power to levy taxes which cannot be taken away from the States that are otherwise competent to impose taxes and duties.
Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court dismissed the petition and held that the notification cannot be seen to be in violation of Article 14 or suffering from the character of tax.— Akay Flavours And Aromatics Pvt Ltd Vs. Asst. Commissioner State Goods And Service Tax Department And Others [2020] 21 TAXLOK.COM 141 (Kerala)