Advance Ruling— Section 98 of CGST Act—The present appeal has been filed against the order of Advance Ruling.

The Appellant is engaged in processing of milk and milk products including flavored milk. As per Appellant, flavored milk is a sweetened dairy drink made with milk sugar permissible colors and artificial or natural flavours. 

The appellant has sought advance ruling on appropriate classification of flavored milk citing various Judgments of Hon'ble supreme court and hon'ble high court of Karnataka.

Question raised before the Authority of Advance Ruling was whether flavored milk is taxable at the rate of 5% under schedule IV of the CGST Act ?

The application filed by the applicant was rejected by the Authority of Advance Ruling on the ground that  the application is hit by provisions of section 98(2) of the CGST Act 2017 as the matter is already pending before DGGI.

The question before this authority essentially pertains to classification of the goods under the Act. It has been observed that the issue before us is squarely covered under Section 97(2)(a).

First proviso to section 98(2) stipulates, 'provided that the authority shall not admit the application where the question raised in the application is already pending or decided in any proceedings in case of an applicant under any of provisions of this Act.'

Held that— In view of the above, no hesitation in concluding that the instant application is not maintainable in as much as it is hit by the provisions contained in first proviso to section 98(2) of the Act. Accordingly, without going into the merits of the case, the application deserves to be rejected as not admissible in terms of first proviso to section 98(2) of the Act.