JOB WORK FOR CLEANING OF SEEDS

[Guest]

Dear Sirs,

Pls advise me whether service tax is aplicable on job work for cleaning and grading of spices by various machines at my factory.Your urgent reply would help me lot.

Thanks and Best Regards

Hemant Patel

[NEERAJ KUMAR, RANCHI]

As per the new negative list of service tax the following services relating to agriculture is exempted:

services relating to agriculture by way of—

(i) agricultural operations directly related to production of any agricultural produce including

cultivation, harvesting, threshing, plant protection or seed testing;

(ii) supply of farm labour;

(iii) processes carried out at an agricultural farm including tending, pruning, cutting,

harvesting, drying, cleaning, trimming, sun drying, fumigating, curing, sorting, grading, cooling

or bulk packaging and such like operations which do not alter the essential characteristics

of agricultural produce but make it only marketable for the primary market;

(iv) renting or leasing of agro machinery or vacant land with or without a structure incidental

to its use;

(v) loading, unloading, packing, storage or warehousing of agricultural produce;

(vi) agricultural extension services;

(vii) services by any Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee or Board or services

provided by a commission agent for sale or purchase of agricultural produce;

 

Here,

"agricultural extension" means application of scientific research and knowledge to

agricultural practices through farmer education or training;

 "agricultural produce" means any produce of agriculture on which either no further

processing is done or such processing is done as is usually done by a cultivator or producer

which does not alter its essential characteristics but makes it marketable for primary market;

Now you can decide wether your acticity falls in the above category or not, if not certainly service tax is payable.

AI Summary

Agricultural service exemption may exclude service tax on cleaning and grading if essential characteristics remain unaltered. Service tax applicability for cleaning and grading of spices turns on the negative-list exemption for services relating to agriculture, which exempts processes such as cleaning, sorting and grading that do not alter the essential characteristics of agricultural produce and are the kind of processing usually done by a cultivator; if the job work does not fall within that exemption, service tax is payable.