Employer recovery of employee canteen charges is outside GST when the actual supply is made by a third-party canteen operator.

GST is not payable on an employer's recovery of employees' share of canteen charges where the food is supplied by an independent third-party canteen operator. The employer merely collects the consolidated amount from employees and remits it to the service provider, without supplying food or canteen services itself, retaining any margin, or making any separate taxable supply to employees. On these facts, the recovery is treated as a reimbursement-type collection and falls outside the GST charge because there is no supply by the employer for consideration.

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Issues: Whether GST is payable on the amount recovered by an employer from employees towards the employees' share of canteen charges for food supplied by a third-party canteen service provider.

Analysis: The canteen was operated by an independent third party, and the employer merely collected the employees' share of the consolidated canteen charges and remitted the whole amount to that third party. The employer did not supply food or canteen services to the employees, did not retain any margin, and did not make any separate taxable supply to the employees in respect of the amount recovered. On these facts, the collection was treated as a reimbursement-type recovery without any supply by the employer to its employees, and therefore outside the charge of GST.

Conclusion: GST is not payable on the employer's collection of the employees' portion of canteen charges paid to the third-party service provider.

Ratio Decidendi: A mere recovery of employees' share of canteen expenses by an employer, where the actual supply is made by an independent third party and the employer makes no separate supply for consideration, does not amount to a taxable supply under GST.

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