Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (Telangana): In an appeal against the ruling of the Telangana Authority for Advance Ruling (‘TAAAR’), the two -member bench of Neetu Prasad and BV Sivanaga Kumari has said that the exemption would be available when the services are provided to an educational institution for services relating to admission to, or conduct of examination by such institution, thus, held that the applicant, as a sub-contractor, is not eligible to claim exemption as available under Notification No. 12/2017 Central tax (Rate).
The applicant sought Advance Ruling on:
Whether Goods and Services Tax (‘GST’) exemption applicable to applicant in respect of the pre and post examination services being provided to the Educational Boards and Universities including Open Universities Educational Institutions’? If yes, whether the exemption is available to the applicant in case of the services are provided on sub-contract basis i.e., the applicant provides pre and post examination services to the main contractor who in turn provides the said services to the Educational Institutions’
The Authority noted that the applicant is engaged in providing pre and post examination services to the Educational Institutions and has entered into agreements with various educational institutions located in different States. Further, the scope of work in respect of the services being provided to the educational institutions by the applicant can be divided into the following three categories.
i. Data processing for conduct of examination
ii. Results Preparation
iii. Generation and printing of statistical data and reports in the prescribed proformas as required by the educational institutions.
The Authority referred the relevant extract of Notification No. 12/2017 and said that the exemption is available when services are provided to an educational institution, by way of services relating to admission to, or conduct of examination by, such institution.
The Authority said that, since in the present case the main contractor to whom the applicant is to provide services as subcontractor is not an educational institution, though the services are allegedly being provided to the Educational Boards and Universities by the main contractor, the exemption contained in the impugned notification is not available to the applicant. When the exemption contained in a notification is to be claimed, an applicant is to satisfy the conditions prescribed therein. Further, the wordings of any notification must be strictly read to allow or deny any exemption.
[Magnetic Infotech Private Limited, In re, 2022 SCC OnLine TS AAAR-GST 1, decided on 22-11-2022]
*Apoorva Goel, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.