Input tax credit on statutory canteen services is restricted by...

Input tax credit on statutory canteen services is restricted by the blocked credit rule for food and beverages, but credit remains available where the employer is legally obliged to provide the facility under the Factories Act. Accordingly, canteen services for regular employees qualified only to the extent the cost was actually borne by the employer; any portion recovered from employees was outside admissible credit. Canteen services attributable to contract workers did not qualify, because they were not employees, no corresponding statutory obligation was shown, and the inward service was not used for any outward supply of the same category. The admissibility of credit was therefore confined to the employer's own statutory expenditure.

---