Section 163 of CGST Act 2017 — Levy of Fee

Section 163 of CGST explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.

Section 163 of the CGST Act, 2017 authorises the levy of a fee for supplying copies of documents. Wherever a copy of any order or document is to be provided to any person on an application made by him for that purpose, a fee at such rate as may be prescribed shall be payable in respect of such copy. The section only enables the fee; the actual rate is fixed by the rules made under Section 164.

What Section 163 Says — In Plain English

Section 163 is a short enabling provision. It states that 'Wherever a copy of any order or document is to be provided to any person on an application made by him for that purpose, there shall be paid such fee as may be prescribed.' The section does not itself fix the amount; instead it delegates the rate-fixing to the rules made under the Act. The purpose is to allow the tax administration to recover the reasonable cost of preparing and supplying certified or attested copies of orders, notices and other documents that a taxpayer or third party may need for records, appeals or evidence.

In plain terms, if you ask the department for a copy of a document it holds, the department can charge you a small, pre-fixed fee for producing that copy. The charge is administrative — it compensates for the cost of reproduction — and it must always correspond to a rate that has actually been prescribed. An officer cannot invent a figure on the spot.

The provision also reflects a basic principle of fee law: a fee must have a nexus with the service rendered and cannot be a disguised tax. Because Section 163 ties the charge to the act of supplying a copy on application, the fee is a genuine cost-recovery levy for a specific service, not a general revenue-raising measure. That is why the rate is expected to be modest and to bear a reasonable relationship to the actual expense of reproducing and certifying the document. If a rate were ever fixed at a level wholly disproportionate to the service, it could be challenged as being, in substance, a tax rather than a fee.

The enabling structure — Act says a fee is payable, rules fix the rate — is deliberate. It keeps the amount flexible so that it can be revised administratively without amending the Act, while ensuring that any charge always rests on a published, prescribed figure. This is the same drafting technique used throughout the CGST Act wherever the word 'prescribed' appears, and it is one of the many places where Section 163 and Section 164 (the rule-making power) operate hand in hand.

Clause / Sub-section Breakdown

• Trigger: a person makes an application for a copy of any order or document under the Act.
• Consequence: a fee becomes payable in respect of that copy.
• Rate: 'such fee as may be prescribed' — i.e., fixed by the CGST Rules under Section 164, not by the section itself.
• Nature: a cost-recovery fee for reproduction, not a tax, filing fee or penalty.

Applicability & Scope

• It applies when a person applies for a copy of any order or document held in the GST records — for example, a certified copy of an adjudication order needed to file an appeal.
• The fee is payable at the rate prescribed by the rules; where no separate rate is notified, portal-based orders are generally supplied without a specific fee.
• It operates in addition to any court fee or documentary requirement under the appellate provisions.
• It does not apply to documents the person is already entitled to download freely from the common portal.

Worked Examples

Example 1. A registered person wants a certified copy of an order-in-original to annex to his appeal under Section 107. He applies for the copy. Under Section 163 he must pay the fee prescribed for that copy. Because most such orders are downloadable from the common portal, the practical incidence is limited, but the legal power to charge a prescribed fee for a physical or certified copy flows from this section.

Example 2. A third party involved in litigation seeks certified copies of certain notices from the GST record running to several pages. If the rules prescribe a nominal per-page charge, the department computes the fee accordingly and supplies the certified copies on payment. The applicant cannot be asked for more than the prescribed rate, and equally cannot demand the copies free where a fee has been prescribed.

Step-by-Step in Practice

First, file an application identifying the order or document required and the purpose. Second, ascertain the prescribed rate (if any) applicable to that copy under the rules. Third, pay the fee through the notified mode. Fourth, collect the certified or attested copy. In practice, since GST is portal-driven, most orders and notices can simply be downloaded, so a Section 163 fee arises mainly when a certified physical copy or an attested reproduction is specifically needed.

A useful discipline for taxpayers and consultants is to first exhaust the self-service route: log in to the common portal, locate the order or notice under the relevant tab, and download the system-generated copy, which is usually sufficient for filing an appeal or maintaining records. Only when a physically certified or attested copy is indispensable — for instance, where a forum insists on a certified copy as documentary evidence — should the formal application under Section 163 be made and the prescribed fee paid. Keeping the payment receipt and the covering application on file is prudent, as it evidences both the request and the amount paid should any question of the fee later arise.

Common Mistakes & Practical Notes

• Assuming Section 163 fixes the fee — it only enables it; the rate lives in the rules under Section 164.
• Confusing this copy fee with return-filing or appeal fees; it is neither.
• Paying an arbitrary amount demanded by an officer — only the prescribed rate is payable.
• Requesting paid certified copies when the same document is freely downloadable from the portal.
• Overlooking that certified copies may be needed as documentary evidence in appeals and litigation.

Related Sections

Section 163 is closely tied to Section 164 (power of the Government to make rules), which supplies the prescribed rate of the fee. It supports the appellate scheme under Sections 107 and 112, where certified copies of orders are often required. It also complements the documentary and evidentiary provisions of the Act, since copies obtained under Section 163 may be produced as records. Together these provisions ensure taxpayers can access documented decisions while allowing the administration to recover copying costs.

Recent Amendments & Context

Section 163 has not been substantively amended, but its practical relevance has shrunk as GST became fully electronic. Orders, notices and communications are now served and stored on the common portal under Section 169, so taxpayers usually download rather than apply for physical copies. During the COVID-19 disruption, when field offices were closed and Section 168A notifications extended various timelines, the portal-based availability of documents meant taxpayers were rarely dependent on physical certified copies to protect limitation. The Supreme Court's extension-of-limitation orders further cushioned any delay in obtaining documents. Section 163 nonetheless remains the standing legal basis for charging a prescribed fee whenever a certified or physical copy is genuinely required.

Looking ahead, the trend is towards even greater digitisation, with system-generated, digitally signed copies increasingly accepted in place of manually certified paper copies. As appellate and judicial forums grow comfortable with portal downloads and digitally authenticated documents, the occasions for invoking the Section 163 fee are likely to narrow further. The provision, however, is written broadly enough to survive these changes: it applies to 'any order or document' supplied 'on an application', so it continues to authorise a prescribed charge for whatever residual category of physical or specially certified copies the administration is still called upon to produce.