Seeking Guidance on Making GST Payments "Under Protest"

1. Procedure: Yes. It is advisable to submit a letter to the proper officer indicating that the payment is made under protest.
2. Acknowledgment: the taxpayer should maintain a record of the payment and the letter submitted as acknowledgement in future.
3. Legal standing: Although the GST act does not have a specific provision for payments under protest, courts have considered such payments in various cases.

Paying GST under protest:

• There's no specific "under protest" form under GST. Pay through DRC-03 and simultaneously write to the officer that the payment is under protest without prejudice to your rights to appeal. Courts (e.g. HP HC in Shyama Power) have held such payments don't amount to acceptance and the matter remains appealable.

• Keep the protest letter acknowledged.

A written protest can help establish that a disputed GST payment was not voluntary, but it does not create a statutory right to pay “under protest” or, by itself, preserve a refund claim. The GST Act and Rules prescribe payment and refund procedures but contain no equivalent to former Central Excise Rule 233B. The reported decision in *Shyama Power India Ltd. v. State of Himachal Pradesh* (CWP 6990 of 2025) should therefore be read in its specific factual and procedural context; it does not, merely by discussing protest, insert a general GST procedure into the legislation.

• If payment is required or made while disputing liability, pay through the prescribed GST channel and promptly send a dated letter to the jurisdictional proper officer, identifying the demand/period, amount, grounds of dispute and that payment is made under protest, without prejudice to available remedies. Preserve the filed return, challan/CIN, correspondence and proof of delivery. Seek an inward stamp or written acknowledgment, but no GST provision makes an officer’s acknowledgment a condition for the protest to be effective.
• If acknowledgment is refused, send the letter through an officially accepted, traceable channel (such as the department’s designated email or registered post) and retain delivery evidence. A portal grievance or representation may provide an additional record where appropriate, but do not assume it substitutes for a prescribed appeal, reply or refund application.
• Courts may consider contemporaneous written protest and surrounding circumstances when deciding whether a payment was voluntary, but the outcome is fact-specific. Former Rule 233B is not itself applicable under GST, and a protest letter does not automatically suspend limitation, establish entitlement to refund, or replace statutory challenge procedures. Any refund remains subject to the GST refund provisions, including applicable limitation and the doctrine of unjust enrichment.

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