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Initializing Secure Environment…
Filing a Show Cause Notice reply or a GST appeal means getting a stack of documents past the portal in the right shape: each file under 5MB, annexures labelled and numbered, and no more than the allowed number of attachments. Doing that by hand with a random compressor at 11pm before a deadline is how filings get missed. Pick your mode, add the documents, and this stamps annexure labels, merges them into the permitted file count, and compresses each under the limit — checking as it goes rather than leaving you to guess.
The GST portal caps each uploaded document at 5MB and expects your annexures to be clearly labelled and in order, which is why filings get rejected at the last minute. This tool prepares the bundle for you: choose SCN Reply or Appeal, add your documents, stamp sequential annexure labels onto the pages, merge them into the allowed number of files, and auto-compress each one under 5MB without making the text unreadable. Free, no sign-up, and nothing is uploaded — the documents stay on your own machine.
The substance of a reply is usually ready long before the deadline; what goes wrong is the packaging. A scanned annexure comes to 12MB and the portal rejects it. The bundle runs to seven documents when the filing type permits fewer. The annexures are uploaded in whatever order the file picker chose, so the numbering in the reply no longer matches. Someone compresses everything to 40% quality in a hurry and the officer receives pages where the figures cannot be read. Each of these is avoidable and each of them is discovered at the worst possible moment, because the portal only tells you once you are already uploading. Preparing the bundle deliberately — label, merge to the permitted count, compress under the cap, check — removes the entire category of problem.
There is a real tension in GST filings between the 5MB cap and the need for evidence to be legible. The thing to understand is that compression does not treat all content alike. Text placed as text in a PDF is vector data and survives any compression level untouched, so a typed reply can be squeezed hard with no loss at all. Scanned pages are photographs, and those are what actually shrink — which is also why they are what degrade. The practical rule: compress typed documents freely, treat scans carefully, and if a scanned annexure will not fit, rescan it in greyscale at 200 to 300 DPI rather than compressing a colour scan into illegibility. A greyscale rescan of a printed document is frequently a quarter of the size and easier to read.
A filing is read by a person who has your reply on one screen and your annexures on another. Everything that makes that easier improves your position. Number the pages continuously across the bundle so a reference to a page is unambiguous. Label each annexure on its first page, in the same words your reply uses to refer to it. Keep the order in the bundle identical to the order they are cited. Put the reply itself first. None of this is a legal requirement and all of it is the difference between an officer following your argument and hunting for the document you meant. The labelling and numbering steps here exist to make that mechanical rather than manual.
Each uploaded document is capped at 5MB, and the number of attachments is limited by the filing type. This tool compresses every file under that cap automatically and warns you if a document cannot be brought under it without unacceptable quality loss.
Use a level that resamples images rather than degrading text. PDF text is vector data and is unaffected by compression at any level — only scanned pages and photographs get resampled. The Balanced preset targets around 150 DPI, which is comfortably legible for an officer reading on screen while typically cutting 40 to 55 percent of the size.
The limits differ by filing type and the tool applies the correct one for the mode you choose, merging your documents into that number of attachments so you are not left trying to work it out at the deadline.
Because your reply refers to them. If your submission says "as per Annexure 3" and the officer cannot tell which uploaded file that is, the point does not land. Stamping sequential annexure labels and page numbers onto the pages makes the bundle navigable and is standard practice in any adjudication or appellate filing.
No. Everything runs inside your browser. This matters more here than almost anywhere else on the site — a GST notice bundle contains your GSTIN, your turnover, your ledgers and often the department's allegations against you. None of it is transmitted, and there is no account holding a copy.
Yes. The Appeal mode is built for APL-01 and APL-03 filings and applies the corresponding attachment limit, alongside the same labelling, merging and compression steps.
That normally means it is a high-resolution scan. Rescan at 200 to 300 DPI in greyscale rather than colour, which typically cuts the size dramatically, or split it into parts if the filing type allows more attachments. Dropping compression quality further tends to make small print unreadable, which is a worse outcome than an extra file.
It adds the annexure labels and page numbers you ask for, and it recompresses images. The text of your reply and evidence is untouched.
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