TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (10) TMI 947
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....o Public Funded Research Institutions? 3. The applicant furnishes some facts relevant to the stated activity: a. The applicant states that they are a joint venture between the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors Limited. The applicant is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling of commercial vehicles, providing after sales service support through its own dealers and authorised dealers located across India. b. The applicant states that they have received orders from various Public Funded Research Institutions for supply of trucks and their spare parts at concessional rate of 5% GST (under Notification No.45/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated November 14, 2017). The summary of the orders are as under: SI. No Goods Public Funded Research Institution from which order is received 1 Trucks Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), (SDSC SHAR) (under the administrative control of Department of Space, Govt. of India) 2 Spare parts of trucks Electronics & Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) (under the administrative control of the Department of Defence Research & Development of the Govt. of India) c. In addition to the above, the applica....
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....ution produces a certificate to that effect from an office not below the rank of the Deputy Secretary' to the Government of India or the Deputy Secretary to the State Government or the Deputy Secretary in the Union Territory in the concerned department to the supplier at the time of supply of the specified goods. 4.2 The applicant states that on perusal of the above notification, it is reasonable to interpret that in order to avail the benefit of concessional rate of tax, fulfillment of the below mentioned conditions are a prerequisite; * Specified goods are supplied to a Public Funded Research Institution (other than a hospital, or a University or an Indian Institute of Technology or Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore or a National Institute of Technology / Regional Engineering College) * The following categories of goods are supplied to above Public Funded Research Institution o Scientific and Technical instruments,, apparatus, equipment (including computers) o Accessories, parts, consumables and live animals (experimental purposes) o Computer software, Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) recorded magnetic tapes, micro films,....
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.... 5.1 The transaction of the applicant is examined and found that the applicant intends to supply trucks and spare parts of automobiles to various research institutions. 5.2 Notification No. 45/2017 - Central Tax (Rate) dated 14.11.2017 exempts specified goods from so much of the central tax leviable thereon under section 9 of the said Act, as is in excess of the amount calculated at the rate of 2.5% when supplied to the institutions specified, subject to the conditions specified in the corresponding entry. 5.3 The issue now boils down to the following: a. Whether the recipient of the supply is a Public Finance Research Institution? b. Whether the goods i.e. Trucks and spare parts are (i) Scientific and technical instruments, apparatus, equipment (including computers) (ii) accessories, parts, consumables and live animals (experimental purpose) c. Whether the conditions mentioned in column 4 of the table in the Notification are satisfied? 5.4 In the present application it's stated that the applicant has received orders from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR) for supply of trucks and order from Electronics & Radar Develo....
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....5.6 above and the same is whether the trucks and the spares could be considered as supplies required for research purpose only. We recall the applicants submission that the trucks to be supplied by them would be used by the institutions to ferry equipments to various locations in the process of research by the recipient institution. The trucks would only be used for transportation purposes and not in the actual process of research. 5.8 The condition at 5.6(b) above reading '...........certifying that the said goods are required for research purposes only' is an expansive condition. It does not lay down that the supply received would be a subject matter of research or would have to be equipment, capable of use in processes integral to research. As long as the equipment serves any purpose forming a part of the total research activity and is not used for any other activity, it qualifies the term 'required for research purposes'. In the recipients case research activities require moving heavy instruments etc from one place to the other without which research activity cannot be undertaken. And this requires the trucks. Therefore the trucks acquire the nature of 'goods required for re....