TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (6) TMI 643
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....pinion in deciding one of the two issues/questions raised by the applicant before them, and consequently had referred the same to the Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling in terms of section 98(5) of the CGST Act, 2017 for decision on the said question. Accordingly, the said issue, which remain undecided by the Authority for Advance Ruling owing to the difference in their opinions, was eventually decided by the Appellant Authority for Advance Ruling vide Order No. MAH/AAAR/SS-RJ/04A/2018-19 dated 06.08.2018 =2018 (8) TMI 977 - APPELLATE AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING, MAHARASHTRA. The Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling vide the aforesaid order had held that the Appellant was not eligible to claim ITC in respect of the Cash Carry Vans, which were used to carry cash as a part of the services provided to their clients as it was observed that the cash or currency, being transported by the Appellant will not be considered as goods as per the definition of the goods provided in section 2(52) of the CGST Act, which inter alia categorically excludes money from the purview of the goods. Aggrieved by the said AAAR Order dated 06.08.2018 = 2018 (8) TMI 977 - APPELLATE AUTHORITY FOR ADV....
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....GST and/or Compensation Cess. II. If answer to Question I is in affirmative, whether Input Tax Credit is available to CMS Info Systems Limited on purchase of motor vehicles i.e. cash carry vans which are purchased, used for cash management business and supplied post usage as scrap. ORDER PASSED BY AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING 5. Regarding the issue raised in the Question I of the application, it is held that supply of motor vehicles i.e. cash carry vans as scrap after its usage will be treated as supply in the course or furtherance of business in terms of the provision of Section 7 of the CGST Act, 2017 and such transaction would attract GST as the disposal of cash carrying van is a transaction in connection with or incidental to or ancillary to business in so much as the sale proceeds of such vans is treated as income and reflected in P&L Account, thereby marking such transaction as taxable supply attracting GST thereon. As regards, the rate of GST leviable on such supply, the applicant has not provided any invoice or has informed tariff heading of these goods. Further, it is also not clear whether after sale these would be usable as vehicles or would be fully scrap....
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............................ 9. As per the meaning assigned to "goods" under clause (52) to Section 2 of the CGST Act, money is excluded from the ambit of the "goods". Section 2 (52) is reproduced below: Section 2. Definition - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (1) ................ (2) ................ ................ (52) "goods" means every kind of movable property other than money and securities but includes actionable claims, growing crops, grass and things attached to or forming part of the land which are agreed to be severed before supply or under contract of supply;" 10. Meaning to "money" has been assigned under clause (75) to Section 2 of the CGST Act, 2017, which is reproduced below: Section 2. Definition - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (1) ................ (2) ................ ................ (75) "money" means the Indian legal tender or any foreign currency, cheque, promissory note, bill of exchange, letter of credit, draft, pay order, traveler's cheque, money order, postal or electronic remittance or any other instrument recognized b....
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....der Section 17(5)(a)(ii) of CGST Act. 16. Section 2 of the CGST Act assigning meanings to various terms used under CGST Act begins with the expression "In this act, unless context otherwise requires". Normally, the term 'means' makes the definition exhaustive one but such exhaustive definition has to be departed from if the definition section opens with the word "unless context otherwise requires" if there be something in the context to show that the definition could not be applied. 17. In the present case, the context in which the cash carry vans are used for transportation of currency is that the goods of the customer banks are transported by the Appellant and not the money as defined under Section 2 (75) of the CGST Act as the said currency cannot be used as money as understood in the common parlance. Further, the intention of the legislature in excluding money from the definition of "goods" is not to levy CGST on supply of money as otherwise CGST is leviable on supplies of intra- state supply of goods. 18. Rule 138 (14) which carves out goods the transportation of which would not require the preparation of e-way bill. The said rule specifically mentioning "currency" un....
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....nt could not have rendered supply of business support service on which GST is paid. Hence denial of input tax credit of tax paid on motor vehicle converted into cash carry van is incorrect. 24. In support of their arguments, the Appellant have relied upon the following judgments: (a) (Printer Mysore)- 1994 (2) SCC 434 = 1994 (2) TMI 261 - SUPREME COURT (b) Thomas Cook -1994 (71) ELT 724(T) = 1994 (2) TMI 144 - CEGAT, NEW DELHI (c) Anyanwu Marteena- 2015 (329) ELT 750 (GOI) = 2014 (4) TMI 1123 - GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 25. The Applicant refers to the view expressed by both the Hon'ble Members to the effect that there is no issue of admissibility when the vehicle is carrying bullion. In the present case vehicle is capital goods under Section 2 (19) and hence even if it is used in stray cases in transportation of bullion input tax credit is admissible as there is no bar from taking credit and in any case, the Appellant are not making any exempt supplies. 26. With the above submission and those made in their applications and additional submissions, it is humbly prayed for holding that Appellant are eligible and entitled for input tax credit of GST pai....
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.... regard is bereft of any merit, hence not sustainable. 31. Accordingly, they had prayed that the application filed by the Applicant be rejected by the appellate authority. PERSONAL HEARING 32. A personal Hearing in the matter was conducted on 14.10.2019, where Ms. Padmavati Patil, Advocate, appearing on behalf of the Appellant, reiterated their earlier written submissions filed before us. Vide the said written submissions, she averred that the Appellant were lawfully eligible and entitled for input tax credit of the GST paid on standard motor vehicle and also the GST paid on the fabrication of the vehicles to suit the need for cash carrying vehicle in light of provision under Section 17 (5) (a)(ii) read with Section 2(52) and Section 2(75) of CGST Act. 33. The aforesaid hearing was also attended by Shri Rishi Yadav in the capacity of the Jurisdictional Officer, wherein he reiterated the earlier written submissions, which had been filed before us. DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS 34. We have carefully gone through the entire case records as well as oral and written submissions made by both the Appellant as well as the Respondent. On perusal of the same, the moot issue, befo....
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....ion of the `goods' and 'money' provided under the GST Act. 36. In view of the above observations of the Hon'ble High Court, we set out to reconsider the submissions made by the Appellant afresh. The Appellant had, inter alia, submitted that they were mainly engaged in the business of ATM cash replenishment services, cash delivery and pick up services, management consultancy services etc. They further submitted that in GST, they had registered themselves under business support services having SAC 99859, and were discharging their GST liability on the entire value charged for supply of the said support services. They, further, submitted that they had to purchase the motor vehicles and fabricate/design the same as per the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, which are then used to transport the cash/bullions as a part of the cash replenishment/ management services agreed to be provided to their clients as per the terms of the agreement entered with them. They further submitted that the money being transported by the cash carry vans under question was nothing but 'goods' for them as they could not use such money for any purpose whatsoever, as they were simply acting as ba....
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....produced herein under: (75) "money" means the Indian legal tender or any foreign currency, cheque, promissory note, bill of exchange, letter of credit, draft, pay order, traveler's cheque, money order, postal or electronic remittance or any other instrument recognized by the Reserve Bank of India when used as a consideration to settle an obligation or exchange with Indian legal tender of another denomination but shall not include any currency that is held for its numismatic value; 40. Now when it has been established that the Appellant cannot use the money, which belong to their clients, at any stage of the activities carried out by them, thus ruling out any possibility of the subject money, transported by them, as being used as legal tender at any stage of the performance of the services rendered by them, it can adequately be inferred that the subject money, transported in the cash carry vans by them, ceases to be anything except goods under the facts and circumstances of the Appellant's case. This notion is also strengthened by the presence of the clause " In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, -" in the definitions section provided under section 2 of the....
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....g by RBI and Banking industry; and that the said guidelines are not applicable to other goods, do not lead to the conclusion that money cannot be considered as 'goods', as it is nowhere mentioned in the GST Act that transportation or treatment of all the goods are to be effected in the uniform manner or the mode of transportation or handling of any goods keeping in mind its value and importance cannot be different from the other goods. Here, the transportation of the currency for the purpose of cash replenishment in ATMs operated by the Appellant's clients are being regulated by RBI in the capacity of the Regulatory Authority, the guidelines of which have to be mandatorily complied with by the Appellant for carrying out their activities. Therefore, the compliance of the guidelines issued by the RBI will not detract the subject money from being goods. Further, non- applicability of the RBI guidelines on the goods other than money is quite obvious, as the RBI is the regulatory authority only in the matter related to the money and not for all the goods. Hence, such arguments, put forth by the Respondent is erroneous and absurd, and do not merit to be considered. 43. Now, when it ha....