TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (3) TMI 1121
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....he outset, we would like to make it clear that the provisions of both the CGST Act and the MGST Act are the same except for certain provisions. Therefore, unless a mention is specifically made to such dissimilar provisions, a reference to the CGST Act would also mean a reference to the same provision under the MGST Act. Further to the earlier, henceforth for the purposes of this Advance Ruling, a reference to such a similar provision under the CGST Act/MGST Act would be mentioned as being under the "GST Act". 02. FACTS AND CONTENTION - AS PER THE APPLICANT The submissions, as reproduced verbatim, could be seen thus- 1. STATEMENT OF FACTS HAVING BEARING ON THE QUESTIONS ON WHICH ADVANCE RULING IS REQUIRED. A) ECOSAN SERVICE FOUNDATION Section 8 NON-PROFIT Organization (companies Act, 2013) Established in 2006 with the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and in association with the Innovative Ecological Sanitation Network of India (IESNI). Our vision is to promote ecological sanitation and sustainable sanitation practices along with efficient water & waste water management practices in India. With cross cutting knowledge and exp....
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....n of HIV infection; (ii) advancement of religion, spirituality or yoga; 22 (I) advancement of educational programmers or skill development relating to,- (A) abandoned, orphaned or homeless children; (B) physically or mentally abused and traumatized persons; (C) prisoners; or (D) persons over the age of 65 years residing in a rural area; (iv) Preservation of environment including watershed, forests and wildlife; ECOSAN is providing services towards sanitation which amounts to preservation of environment, hence GST exemption is applicable, Additional submission of applicant NOTE AS MENTIONED IN REPLY TO THE QUESTION 1 A) What is preservation of environment and its relevance in national context? Preservation of environment can be broadly defined as 'Ito maintain the environment in present condition areas". Natural resources such as lakes, rivers, forests, wildlife, etc. have a pivotal role in Indian lifestyle but growing population of the country is increasing pressure on environment. The primary concern of the government is to implement policies and programs for conservation of the ecosystem, natural resources, welfare of animals and prevention of pollution....
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....itting all the people and citizens of this country. The institution is basically operating in the field of - promotion of ecological sanitation and sustainable sanitation practices - - To have and follow efficient water & waste water management practices in India. What is Ecological Sanitation? Ecological Sanitation (Ecosan) is a concept that treats various types of waste generated by us as a resource which can be safely collected, treated and reused to prevent pollution of water bodies and the environment. Currently, various types of Ecosan practices such as promotion of Ecosan toilets, compost pits, bio-gas plants, reed-beds for treatment of waste water, etc., are being taken up to treat waste generated by us in a ecologically sound manner. Importance of Ecological Sanitation: C) THE PROBLEMS FACED BY INDIA I) BACKGROUND It has been reported in one of the Articles in "The Economist" that: "One in ten deaths in the country is linked to poor hygiene standards". INDIA vies with China to be the world's fastest-growing large economy, but its record on basic sanitation is dreadful. Around 450m people relieve themselves in playgrounds, behind trees....
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....e sarpanch (village head), the junior engineer who surveys the site and the local contractor are in cahoots and skimp on building materials and design, says Nitya Jacob, a sanitation consultant. Simply punching holes in the ground at breakneck speed will not solve the problem. India could learn from neighboring Bangladesh, which reduced open defecation from 34% to 1% between 1990 and 2015. As part of a sustained effort, its government partnered with village councils to educate people in the merits of good sanitation. Instead of just highlighting the hazards of open defecation, it extolled the virtues of clean sanitation. Having a toilet became a symbol of dignity. Women decided on the location and type of toilets to be built in their homes. In India, on the other hand, officials have at times brutally punished those who defecate outside. Some have been beaten up, and a few others have been denied government benefits like pensions and monthly household provisions unless they build a toilet at home. In the short run such coercive tactics might work to increase the number of installed toilets, but they will do little to promote their use. With a population of over 1.3 billion....
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....g heat waves in the past years are but an indication that global warming and climate change are real challenges that the country is facing now. With the Himalayan glaciers melting at an alarming rate, floods and other such natural disasters are occurring with increasing frequency. The number of forest fires, floods, earthquakes and such other calamities over the past five years has been unprecedented. Use of Plastics - Unrestrained use of plastics is another major concern for the country. According to data from the Plastindia Foundation, India's demand for polymers is expected to go up from 11 million tones in 2012-13 to about 16.5 million tones in 2016-17. India's per capita plastic consumption went up from about 4 kg in 2006 to some 8 kg in 2010. By 2020, this is likely to shoot up to about 27 kg. To understand the damage that this can cause to the environment, it is important to understand that plastics are one of the least biodegradable materials. An average plastic beverage bottle could take up to 500 years to decompose naturally. Garbage Disposal and Sanitation According to a 2014 report by The Economist, about 130 million households (and 600 million population) i....
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....ho live in urban spaces without private toilets is estimated at around 157 million. Open defecation in India The number of people in urban areas that practice open defecation is 41 million. This NGO named Water Aid is based in the UK and works in the domain of sanitation and safe water. Its report is named Overflowing Cities - The State of the World's Toilets 2016 and is the second such yearly report by the group that has been looking at the condition of toilets across the world. In fact, this year it studied the condition of at least 700 million people living in urban areas around the globe without any proper sanitation. The report was released a day before the World Toilet Day, which is celebrated on 19th November every year. Enormity of the situation The said report states that due to a high level of population density in the urban areas, diseases can spread around in a rather short span of time. This is especially applicable when proper sanitation facilities are lacking. In fact, the report has stated that the amount of waste generated through open defecation in the streets of cities and towns in India can easily fill up eight swimming pools every day, and that too ....
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....ter resources Water, mostly of highest quality, is used as a transport medium for human excreta. Flush sanitation requires significant volumes of water, even where flush volumes have been designed to be reduced. (Often in those cases, a single flush is not always efficient enough to obtain a clean toilet.) - See below under Ecosan 3 2) Lack of public hygiene On coasts along rivers, sewage is being released into water bodies. The technology package of flush sanitation is not complete if a toilet is not combined with reliable water supply, underground (!) sewerage, sewage treatment (infrastructure plus operations & maintenance (O&M) plus energy needs implied), and treatment (or better, re-use) of sludge. As most systems in the (global) South are incomplete, flush sanitation does not solve the problem of hygienic handling of human excreta, but keeps unhygienic conditions alive and shifts the burden, in general, from the campuses of the rich to the backyards of the poor. 3) Pollution of water cycle Water bodies, lakes, rivers and seashores are polluted with domestic sewage. Water becomes unusable for most human needs, and water bodies become an eyesore, a source of pest ....
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....s of ecosan/UDDT are as follow: 1) Re-use of biomass and plant nutrients Human excreta - in particular, urine-contain essential plant nutrients - in particular, the macronutrients that present the bottlenecks of agricultural production, leading to the classic industrially manufactured agrochemicals. These are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulfur (S), and also some sodium, chloride, etc. The plant nutrients in one person's excreta (mostly in urine) are sufficient to produce the food required by one person. It is obvious that this cycling of elements in nature should be a source of fertilizers and crop nutrients, and should not be seen as waste. Human stool provides the bulk of carbon matter in human excreta, as much required for sustainable farming as macro- and micronutrients. 2) Making agriculture and food security more sustainable The present agriculture scenario is dependent on non-renewable resources (and energy), some of which will be depleted within the next decades. In the case of phosphorus - an element that is essential for every living cell, microbial, vegetal, animan and human reserves are located in very few countries (Morocco, China, US, Midd....
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....hallenges of ecosan At the level of the household, investment costs of a UDDT are higher than those of a flush toilet room. Though as said above, this is probably perfectly balanced by savings in public expense (infrastructure and O&M) on water supply, sewer systems, treatment systems, sludge treatment, energy requirements for water pumps, sewage pumps, treatment systems, etc., and labor expense for sewer systems and treatment systems. The ideal and user-friendly technology package for urban (middle-class) households (regarding the removal and re-use of urine and compost) in India has yet to be developed. As it not yet available, it cannot be publicly advertised and is far from being mainstreamed. The biggest challenge is linking the market-i.e. agriculture, with the production sites - i.e. households, human settlements. Some studies have estimated that the overall costs of this linkage will not be more than the costs of the present transport & disposal system via water, even without taking the cost benefits of the resource into account. C. Sanitation factors independent of the flush/ecosan issues Benefits of privacy, dignity, security - in particular for women and g....
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....ard at the prestigious 'Water Digest' Awards in 2007-08. The event was supported by UNESCO and NDTV was the media partner. 2014: International Seminar on Ensuring Sustainable Urban Water Supply Management Ecosan Services Foundation participated in the 'International Seminar on Ensuring Sustainable Urban Water supply Management: Best Practices Case Studies' in July 2014. The seminar was organized by 'Indian Water Works Association' (IWWA). 2012: Participation at Indian Water Works Association (IWWA) Ecosan Services Foundation participated in the 'Indian Water Works Association' (IWWA) international conference in 2012 in Goa. 2013: Participation at Indian Water Works Association (IWWA) Ecosan Services Foundation participated in the 'Indian Water Works Association' (IWWA) international conference in Mumbai. 2014: Participation at Indian Water Works Association (IWWA) Ecosan Services Foundation participated in the 'Indian Water Works Association' (IWWA) international conference in Mumbai. 2007: 39^th IWWA Annual Convention Ecosan Services Foundation participated in the 39th IWWA Annual Convention on Emerging opportunities in Management of Water Supply and ....
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....he Ecosan Services foundation providing services towards Sanitation, which amounts, to preservation of environment, hence GST is not applicable to them. This office has observed that, taxpayer has claimed and asking for their services towards sanitation amounts to preservation of environment and their activity of providing sanitation services by way of charitable activities is free of GST. In this sense, Charitable activities have been defined in IT. Act, 1961 in section 2(15) as "Charitable Purpose" includes relief of the poor, education, Yoga, Medical relief, preservation of environments (including watersheds, forest and wildlife) and preservation of monuments or places of objects of artistic or historic interest, and the advancement of any other object of general public utility. As the notification No.12/2017 Central Tax Rate DT. 28.06.2017 issued by Govt. of India Ministry of Finance at Sr. No. 1 clearly, describes the services by an entity registered u/s 12AA of IT. Act, by way of charitable activities. In the present case, the taxpayer is not registered as an entity u/s 12AA of Income Tax Act, 1961 and the second part is that these services be provided by way of Char....
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.... programme(total no. of 19 schools) 2017-18 The HSBC Ltd. The HSBC Ltd. 22,58,300/- Urban community sanitation in Nevasa and Shevgaon, Maharashtra. For period of 1 year. 2017-18 CAF - 9,54,800/- Under support my school campaign season V 2017-18 CAF Coca cola 2,82,000/- Maintenance of basic amenities like toilet, access to water and basic infrastructure (phase-2) 2018-19 CAF Kimberly Clark foundation 50,000/- Repair + Maintenance of toilets development under 1 year programme(total no. of 02 schools) 2018-19 Worlds Toilets Organisation Singapore WTO 13,62,636/- To host world toilet summit (WTS in November 18th and 19th 2018 in Mumbai, India) In order to render services amounts are received from various companies and persons as grants. Donations. The details are mentioned in the above table. On this factual matrix applicant is seeking an advance ruling on whether any grant/ Donation received towards performing specific services towards preservation of environment amounts to provision of service and liable to GST? Thus the central point of the discussion in the ruling is the entry at Sr. No. 1 of the Notif....
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....y and research in the field of natural wastewater treatment technologies. One specific activity is construction of suction toilets and waterless UDDTs (urine-diversion dehydration toilets) as an alternative to flush toilets which cause wastage of large quantities of water. The applicant contends that this activity contributes to conservation of water reources and in particular reduces depletion of ground water resources. Another activity is waste management in which human excreta, instead of releasing it into the environment causing pollution is recycled for extraction of micro and macro nutrients which are used in agriculture. The applicant contends that conservation of water and prevention of pollution are essentially activities relating to preservation of environment. Having examined the nature of activities undertaken by the applicant, we find abundant force in their contention as it is a well known fact that flush toilets waste large quantities of water and that recycling of human excreta would reduces pollution of the environment. Therefore we are of the opinion that the applicant's activities are covered by the activity specified under Para 2(r)(iv) of the Notification relat....