Exempt electrical energy supplies under rooftop solar arrangements do not require GST registration, and advance rulings bind only on unchanged facts.

Exclusive supply of wholly exempt electrical energy through a rooftop solar arrangement did not attract GST registration, because electrical energy was treated as goods and remained exempt under Notification No. 02/2017-Central Tax (Rate). The applicant was therefore not liable to pay GST or obtain registration for that supply. An advance ruling, however, has only a limited statutory effect: it binds the applicant and the jurisdictional officers only so long as the material law, facts and circumstances remain unchanged. It does not operate as a general precedent for unrelated parties or altered transactions.

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Issues: (i) Whether the applicant was liable to pay GST and obtain registration for supply of electrical energy under the rooftop solar power arrangement. (ii) Whether the advance ruling would apply to future similar transactions involving supply of electrical energy.

Issue (i): Whether the applicant was liable to pay GST and obtain registration for supply of electrical energy under the rooftop solar power arrangement.

Analysis: The supply under the power purchase arrangement was only of electrical energy generated by the applicant through a solar power plant owned by it. Electrical energy was treated as goods, and the supply of exempt goods fell within the statutory scheme of supply. The Authority noted that electrical energy was exempted under Notification No. 02/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017. Since the applicant was engaged exclusively in supplying wholly exempt electrical energy, the registration obligation under the GST law did not arise. The Authority therefore rejected the proposed treatment of the transaction as a taxable intra-State or inter-State supply requiring GST registration in West Bengal.

Conclusion: The applicant was not liable to obtain GST registration or pay GST on the supply of electrical energy, and the ruling was in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the advance ruling would apply to future similar transactions involving supply of electrical energy.

Analysis: The binding effect of an advance ruling was confined to the applicant and the jurisdictional officers, and it continued only so long as the law, facts, and circumstances remained unchanged. The Authority applied the statutory rule that an advance ruling does not operate as a general precedent for unrelated parties or altered factual situations.

Conclusion: The ruling would bind only for the same applicant and only where the material law and facts remained the same.

Final Conclusion: The application succeeded on the core tax issue, and the ruling clarified the limited statutory reach of the advance ruling for identical future fact situations involving the same applicant.

Ratio Decidendi: Exclusive supply of wholly exempt electrical energy does not attract GST registration, and an advance ruling binds only within the statutory limits of identical facts and unchanged law.

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