AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (10) TMI 445
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.... relevant facts having a bearing on the questions raised) and ANNEXURE-III(Statement containing applicant's interpretation of law and /or facts, in respect of the questions raised) which are given below. They have also submitted a copy of Challan evidencing payment of Rs. 10000/- towards application fee. ANNEXURE- I(Questions on which advance ruling is required) 1. Whether supply of service of: (i) Printing of Pre-examination items like question papers, OMR sheets (Optical Mark Reading), answer booklets; (ii) Printing of Post-examination items like marks card, grade card, certificates to the educational boards of up to higher secondary; and (iii) Scanning and processing of results of examinations; be treated as exempted supply of service by virtue of Entry No. 66 of the Notification No. 12/2017 - Central Tax (Rate), dated 28th June, 2017 and as amended by Notification No.2/2018 - Central Tax (Rate), dated 25th January, 2018; Entry No. 66 of Notification No. 12/2017 - State Tax (Rate), dated 29th June, 2017; and Entry No. 69 of the Notification No. 9/ 2017 - Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 28th June, 2017 as amended by Notification No. 2/2018- Integrated Tax (Rate), date....
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....scenarios, the company prints the cheque and then supplies the cheque book to the bank once the final output is ready. (iii) Printing of Aadhaar Cards for UIDAI: The Company has entered into contract with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for provision of services of printing and despatching of Aadhaar Cards. For providing the said service the Company has to perform the following activities which includes: A. Data processing - The Company receives the data for printing from UIDAI in Unicode XML (Extensible Markup Language) file format. In order, to carry out the activity of printing the Company has to convert the file into a readable format, for which the Company is availing the professional services of Data processing from a third party service provider. This service is received by the Company in-house. B. Printing of photographs along with individual data of the Citizens. C. Lamination and enveloping - The Company has to laminate the Aadhaar card, post which it shall be enveloped and despatched to the card holder. D. Sorting of data - The Company has to collate and sort the data based on the parameters provided by UIDAI, like sorting of data based....
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.... an educational institution, by way of- (i) transportation (ii) catering (iii) security or cleaning (iv) Services relating to admission to, or conduct of examination by, such institution; (v) supply of online educational journals or periodicals:" 'Provided that nothing contained in subitems (i), (ii) and (iii) of item (b) shall apply to an educational institution other than an institution PROVIDING providing services by way of pre-school education and education up to higher secondary school or equivalent. Provided further that nothing contained in sub-item (v) of item (b) shall apply to an institution providing services by way of- (i) pre-school education and education up to higher secondary school or equivalent; or (it) education as a part of an approved vocational education course In this regard, the following are to be considered: (i) The services provided by the applicant to an educational board by way of printing of question papers, OMR sheets (Optical ....
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.... • Collating data of - paper/subject wise marks of absent candidates, marks scored by the students, dual status, TSS & GSS, total questions solved, total unsolved questions; • Preparation of reports such as-consolidated reports; subject mismatch reports; discrepancy reports for correction in consultation of Board; statistical reports as and when required by the board; • Validation and preparation of data base for regular student; • The aforesaid details will be transmitted into high quality soft copy (CD/DVD) and excel format and the data will be submitted to the educational institutions; • Result processing after re-verification of marks/re-evaluation of answer books • Development of software for printing of duplicate certificate cum marks sheet. The applicant carries out the aforesaid activities as an agent for Concealed Results Processing through Barcode systems for examination conducted by the educational institution. Upon completion of this activity, action is taken by the educational institution for communication of results. These services provided by the applicant are directly related to conduct of ex....
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....tivity of printing, the end product shall accordingly be construed as "Cheque" and not "Cheque paper". (b) The Cheque printed on the cheque paper should be classifiable as "products of the printing industry", which will be "Cheque". The Cheque paper is not the product of printing industry, but it is the cheque which is the product of the printing industry. (c) The printing was the primary purpose and without it, the cheque paper on which the matter was printed, is of no use to the appellant's customer. (d) The trade as well as in common parlance, treat these products as cheque and not cheque paper. (e) The product wherever printed must be classified having regard to what it means and how it is understood in common parlance. Thus being the case, it is the printing on the cheque paper, which communicates the message to the buyer that the product supplied to him is "Cheque" and not "Cheque paper". The printing of the cheque communicates to the customer bank about the product and this serves a definite purpose of the customer bank. Thus, the applicant based on the above would prefer to the classification of the product which is printed by the applicant under the foll....
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....17-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 13th October, 2017, which is as under: Sl.No. Heading Description of Service Rate (Per Cent) Condition 26 9988 (Manufacturing services on physical inputs(goods) owned by others) (ii) Services by way of treatment or process on goods belonging to another person in relation to (c) printing of all goods falling under Chapter 48 or 49, which attract CGST @ 2.5% percent or NIL; TGST @ 2.5% percent or NIL; IGST @5% or NIL 2.5 - Thus, the applicant based on the above facts submits that the activity of printing of cheque, the goods being the cheque in the given case would fall under within the ambit of Chapter 4907. Such goods attracts the rate of tax i.e., CGST, SGST and IGST as "NIL". Hence, the activity of printing of cheque carried out by the applicant will be liable to tax under GST as treatment of process on goods belonging to another registered person being in the nature job work at the rate of 5% (2.5% - Central Tax and 2.5% - State Tax or 5% - Integrated Tax.) (B) Physical inputs ie., paper belonging to the applicant:- The applicant submits that even such supplies would be supply of se....
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.... Condition 27 9989 (Other manufacturing services; publishing, printing and reproduction services; materials recovery services) (i) Services by way of printing of all goods falling under Chapter 48 or 49 [including newspapers, books (including Braille books), journals and periodicals], which attract CGST @ 6 per cent or 2.5 per cent, or Nil; TGST @ 6 per cent, or 2.5 per cent, or Nil; IGST @ 12 per cent or 5 per cent or Nil. where only content is supplied by the publisher and the physical inputs including paper used for printing belong to the printer. 6 Thus, the applicant based on the above facts submits that the activity of printing of cheque, the goods being the cheque in the given case would fall under within the ambit of Chapter 4907. Such goods attracts the rate of tax i.e., CGST, SGST and IGST as "NIL". Hence, the activity of printing of cheque carried out by the applicant will be liable to tax under GST as treatment of process belonging to the applicant itself will be liable to tax under GST at the rate of 12% (6%- Central Tax and 6%- State Tax or 12%- Integrated Tax). QUESTION : 3 Whether, in the facts and circumstance....
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....supply of printing of the content [supplied by the recipient of supply] is ancillary to the principal supply of goods and therefore such supplies would constitute supply of goods falling under respective headings of Chapter 48 or 49 of the Customs Tariff" is ultra vires and quod contra legam fit, pro infectohabetur (What is done contrary to law is deemed not to have been done at all) as the Government is only empowered to notify transactions which are to be treated as 'supply of goods and not services or supply of services and not goods'. This power is vested under Section 7(3) of the CGST Act, 2017 and not to specify what the 'principle element in a transaction is'. It is important to note that this will always be transaction and business specific; it cannot be specified on an all-pervasive basis.Hence, the applicant provides that the activity provided by the applicant is purely a "service" in relation to printing where the content to be printed along with design and logo is provided by UIDAI and the applicant only prints such content on the paper. Accordingly the activity of printing on the paper will fall within the ambit of Entry No. 27 with heading 9989 (i) ....
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....17-Integrated Tax (Rate) dated 28th June, 2017. Sl.No. Heading Description of Goods 106 3920 Other plates, sheets, film, foil and strip, of plastics, non-cellular and not reinforced, laminated, supported or similarly combined with other materials d with other materials Rate of tax The applicant submits that printing activity specified above shall be taxable at the rate specified in Entry No. 27 with heading 9989 (ii) of Notification No. 11/2017Central Tax (Rate) dated 28th June, 2017 and as amended by Notification No. 20/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 22nd August, 2017, Notification No. 11/2017 -State Tax (Rate) dated 29th June, 2017 and as amended by Notification G.O.Ms No.227, dated 05th October, 2017; Notification No. 8/2017-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 28* June, 2017 as amended by Notification No. 20/2017-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 22nd August, 2017 as outlined below, since the goods on which the activity of printing does not fall under Chapter 48 or 49:- SI.No. Heading Description of Service Rate (Per Cent) Condition 27 9989 (ii) Other manufacturing services; publishing, printing and reproduction services; materials recov....
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....ii) and (iii) of item (b)" shall apply to an educational institution other than an institution providing services by way of pre-school education and education up to higher secondary school or equivalent. Provided further that nothing contained in sub-item (v) of item (b) shall apply to an institution providing services by way of,- (i) pre-school education and education up to higher secondary school or equivalent; or (ii) education as a part of an approved vocational education course."; Further, the said Notification also provides definition for 'educational institution'. In terms of the definition provided under the Notification, (y) "educational institution" means an institution providing services by way of,- (i) pre-school education and education up to higher secondary school or equivalent; (ii) education as a part of a curriculum for obtaining a qualification recognised by any law for the time being in force; (iii) education as a part of an approved vocational education course; So the services provided to 'educational institutions' for conducting of examinations are eligible for exemption under entry No.66 of Notification No. 12/2017- Central Tax (Rate) dt. ....
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....instant case, the applicant is rendering various supplies like conversion of data to the required file format, printing of aadhaar cards, lamination, franking and dispatching etc. In the entire gamut of things being undertaken by the applicant, all the supplies made by them, are naturally bundled and supplied in conjunction with each other. Each of these supplies are not supplied separately and are dependent on other supplies provided by them. Any single supply will not serve the purpose and will not complete the task entrusted to them. Hence, the services can be considered as composite service in terms of section 2(30) of CGST/TGST Act, 2017. These services cannot be considered as mixed supply as each service is dependent on one another and all the supplies are provided in conjunction. Despatching of aadhaar card will not be complete unless it is printed, laminated and franked by the applicant. Likewise all the services are interdependent on one another. Hence it cannot be considered as mixed supply in terms of section 2(74) of CGST/TGST Act, 2017. In the entire gamut of things being undertaken by the applicant, it appears that, it is an activity of predominant nature of supply of....
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....ore such supplies would constitute supply of service falling under heading 9989 of the scheme of classification of services. 5. In case of supply of printed envelopes, letter cards, printed boxes, tissues, napkins, wall paper etc. falling under Chapter 48 or 49, printed with design, logo etc. supplied by the recipient of goods but made using physical inputs including paper belonging to the printer, predominant supply is that of goods and the supply of printing of the content [supplied by the recipient of supply] is ancillary to the principal supply of goods and therefore such supplies would constitute supply of goods falling under respective headings of Chapter 48 or 49 of the Customs Tariff. 3.4.3 From the aforesaid clarification, in the instant case since the PVC cards are belonging to the applicant, predominant supply is that of goods and the supply of printing of the content supplied by the recipient of supply is ancillary to the principal supply of goods and therefore such supply would be classified as supply of goods falling under chapter 3920 of the Customs Tariff as made applicable to GST Tariff, hence it attracts 18% GST ( 9%CGST+9%SGST) as per Sl.No.106 of Schedule ....