TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (11) TMI 400
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....ing filed by it before the Gujarat Authority for Advance Ruling (herein after referred to as the 'GAAR'). "Whether the educational assessment examination (ASSET) with its variants provided by the applicant to school/educational organization is exempted from payment of GST under Sr. No. 66(b)(iv) of the Not. No. 12/2017-CT (rate) dated 28.06.2017 and entry No. 69(b)(iv) of Not. No. 9/2017-Integrated Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 as well as equivalent SGST Notification". 2.1 The applicant submitted in the application for Advance Ruling that it deals in the products and solutions mainly intended to be used by primary and secondary schools for the assessment and learning. ASSET is examination tool for educational assessment of student in class 3rd-10th Standards across India and outside India. They provide the question bank of various subjects which are set by them based on the class level, board (like state or CBSE or ICSE etc.) and the methodology adopted by the school for teaching, to the Schools and it is called "ASSET" which stands for "Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing". The applicant submitted that it is a scientifically designed, skill-based assessmen....
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....o. 66(b)(iv) reads as under, "Service Provided (b) to an educational institution, by way of,- (iv) services relating to admission to, or conduct of examination by, such institution, up to higher secondary. As per the above mentioned entry, services are exempt only when the same are provided by/ to an institution which qualifies the definition of an 'educational institution". Further, it is submitted that the service provided by the applicant is in relation to conduct of online examination by schools and it does not have any other use than in conducting a specific examination. The applicant is, therefore not liable to pay tax on the service provided to the Educational institution. 2.4 The applicant submitted that every activity of educational institution by which it examines progress or test qualification or knowledge of student would fall under meaning of examination by the educational institution. In the instant case, applicant is providing contents to the school for conducting examinations and after examination, provides reports on performance of students. These reports are used by the schools for evaluation of the students. Thus in view of the above, service provided by the ....
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....s. The GAAR has also placed reliance on the ruling of M/s. Edutest Solutions Private Limited, Gujarat AAR (2018 (10) TMI 201) and M/S. The Bangalore Printing And Publishing Co. Limited, Karnataka AAR (2019 (11) TMI 157), wherein it was held that supply of printing question paper is eligible for exemption under Sr. No. 66(b)(iv) of Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017, as amended. In the instant case, the applicant has been preparing the questions too apart from printing them, accordingly similar kind of service was provided by the service provider to Educational Institutions. In view of the foregoing, the GAAR has ruled as follows :- Question :...... Ans: Yes, exemption is available in view of the above discussion in respect of ASSET services provided to educational institution. 4. Aggrieved by the aforesaid ruling, the Assistant Commissioner, Central Goods and Services Tax, Division - VII, Ahmedabad - South Commissionerate (Jurisdictional Officer) (herein after referred to as the "appellant" or the "Department") has filed the present appeal. 4.1 It has been submitted in the grounds of appeal that the aforesaid Advance Ruling is based on erroneous inte....
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....e. ASSET assessment programme fits into the above definition i.e. ASSET evaluate the students' performance based on the assessment test and accordingly prescribe students, teachers and management, personalized feedback, personalized report, benchmarking, practice question for learning purpose and other number of series of events and actions as mentioned below: (i) It provides insight on the performance of the entire school on all subjects at a national, state and city level. (ii) It provides in depth of section's performance, skill analysis highlights areas of improvement for section. (iii) Assess and inform students understanding of concepts and about critical learning gaps. (iv) What should teachers do to improve classroom instruction. (v) Provides insight more in Mybooks i.e. Student Mybook, Teacher Mybook and Management Mybook. (vi) Student Mybook consists of following : Response Sheet, Skill Profile and Remediation target, Strength and Weakness with remediation planning, Practice question for learning check. (vii) Teacher Mybook consist performance table for student responses, Skill summary for remediation target, CWA question with remediation planning, practice ....
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....helps improve the overall perspective of a school by pointing out skills that need improvement. The reports provide better directions for programmes like teacher training and capacity building. It provides key insights to teachers about where their students stand with regards to the different skills, when compared with other sections and other schools. It also provides practice questions that can be used to reinforce concepts in weak skills. Students get a personalised report which highlights their strong and weak skills. Practice questions for the weak skills are also provided. 4.5 From the above referred information, ASSET is a benchmarking test for school and not examination conducted by the school in respect of their core activity i.e. Education upto the level of higher Secondary. Further, GAAR has observed that "ASSET exam is conducted without any pre / post teaching business with the school" and "under ASSET, they do not provide any pre or post exam teaching to the students", whereas in Management Mybook 2018, it has been mentioned that the ASSET provides 'feedback' on real learning to student. They also provide them personalized report which highlights their strong and ....
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....the service to the educational institute in relation to conduct of examination but in the case at hand the applicant is involved in the business of building products that focus on diagnostic assessment and personalized learning. 4.8 It has been submitted that in case of advance ruling of M/s Edutest Solution Private Limited, by Gujarat AAR (2018 (10) TMI 201) and M/s The Banglore Printing and Publishing Co. Limited, by Karnataka AAR (2019 (11) TMI 157), it was held that supply of printing question papers is eligible for exemption under Sr. No. 66(b)(iv) of Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017, as amended. In these cases, the supplier received orders for printing of question papers, with the content of questions provided to them. However, in the instant case, the applicant has been preparing the questions too apart from printing them. Further, the applicant's activity is not limited to that extent and they are further involved in chain of events like providing reports to students, teacher and management, personalized practice questions to the students and continuous academic support team to help the school teachers make the most out of the insights derived, ....
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....28.06.2020, as amended, as well as equivalent IGST and SGST notification. 5. The applicant has also made written submissions vide letter dated 05.11.2020 against the Appeal filed by the Department. 5.1 Apart from reiterating the submissions made in the Application for Advance Ruling filed before the GAAR, the applicant has submitted that the dictionary meaning are guided by the general linguistic principles however when the terms are used in relation to a particular subject, the essence of the meaning is to be construed in view of the subject in relation to which the meaning are narrated. Therefore, the term 'examination' and 'assessment' when viewed from the academic perspective indicate that the same are synonyms and both the terms indicate that the subject is put to attest or like tool which would help in ascertaining the knowledge level of the subject in a particular subject. The department's view that they have provided an 'assessment programme' instead of 'examination' by using so many words, falls flat inasmuch as 'assessment' and 'examination' in academic perspective mean one and the same thing. 5.2 The applicant has submitted that Examination does not start and end with....
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....evaluated by use of ASSET. This fact establishes the fact that ASSET is a test that measures the academic acumen of a student which is nothing but an examination looking from the perspective of academics. b. Prescribing personalized feedback and practice question for learning purpose : Providing practice question is merely aimed at getting the students acquainted with the methodology of the test. A simple act of providing practice question does not take away the point that ASSET is an examination. 5.5 The applicant has submitted that providing full time support for school and teachers with regard to ASSET tool does not change the fact that they are rendering service in relation to conducting an examination. Further, it is submitted that one day workshop is conducted for the sole purpose of explaining to the teachers as to how to analyse the reports generated after the class has taken ASSET exam. This is required because the reports are very detailed and it is important that the teachers need to be trained on how to analyze it. They don't have any kind of interaction with the students whatsoever hence the question of providing training to students does not arise. 5.6 The applica....
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.... contents portray the array of products and services offered by the applicant of which only one particular activity is under dispute. The web-contents are designed on the marketing front whereas the actual activity needs to be assessed in terms of the agreement entered into with the schools. 5.11 The applicant has submitted that the department had not taken into consideration the point number 8 of the terms and condition of the agreement which states that, ASSET shall form mandatory part of their examination and evaluation of the students. Schools have themselves agreed that ASSET shall form part of their examination system. The fact that they provide question paper in physical as well as online format to the school and also the other fact that if any school took ASSET, it is mandatory to take for all the students in a class and they are not at a liberty to take it for few students only, have not been taken into consideration. 5.12 The applicant has submitted that the above facts clearly point out that they have provided service to schools in relation to conduct of examination and as such the service is squarely covered under Sr. No. 66 of Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (ra....
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....b) (iv) of Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28-6-2018, as amended vide Notification No. 2/2018-Central Tax (Rate) dated 25-1-2018, or otherwise. 7.1 It would, therefore be appropriate to refer to the relevant entry at Sl. No. 66 of Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 and other relevant terms defined / explained in the said Notification, which reads as follows :- Sl.No. Chapter, Section, Heading, Group or Service Code (Tariff) Description of Services Rate (per cent) Condition (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 6 Heading 9992 or Heading 9963 Services provided - (a) by an educational institution to its students, faculty and staff; (aa) by an educational institution by way of conduct of entrance examination against consideration in the form of entrance fee; (b) to an educational institution, by way of,- (i) transportation of students, faculty and staff; (ii) catering, including any mid-day meals scheme sponsored by the Central Government, State Government or Union territory; (iii) security or cleaning or housekeeping services performed in such educational institution; (iv) services relating to admission to, or conduct of examin....
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....ol for educational assessment of students in class 3 to 10, across India and outside India; that the applicant provides the Question Bank of various subjects, which are set by them based on the class level, Board type (State Board, CBSE, ICSE etc.) and the methodology adopted by the school. Thus, the Question Papers of various subjects are set by the applicant and not by the schools. Further, these Question Papers of various subjects are printed / got printed by the applicant and not by the schools. 8.2 On going through the School Summary Form (EB / ARO) 2019 submitted by the applicant, it appears that the ASSET test is taken twice a year, i.e. 'Summer Round' and 'Winter Round'. In the said School Summary Form (EB / ARO) 2019, the ASSET Test dates have been mentioned as 'Summer Round - 5th to 9th August, 2019' and 'Winter Round - 2nd to 6th December, 2019'. It has also been mentioned in the said Form that the 'Test dates as specified should be strictly followed by the school'. Thus, the dates of the ASSET are fixed by the applicant and not by the schools. The contention of the applicant that the schools are free to choose when and how to take these exams, is therefore, found to be....
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....e applicant. All these facts lead to the only conclusion that ASSET is conducted by the applicant. Therefore, it cannot be said that ASSET is an examination conducted by the schools i.e. educational institution. 9. We may also look into other aspects of ASSET. 9.1 It appears that ASSET provides an opportunity to students of grades 5 to 8, who perform exceptionally well in the ASSET test, to appear for ASSET Talent Search - a twolevel test designed to identify academically gifted students wherein the top-performing students get an opportunity to participate in various gifted programmes offered by ASSET & their partner universities & research institutes. The schools do not appear to have any role in it. This indicates that neither the ASSET is an examination conducted by the schools, nor the role of the applicant that of providing services relating to conduct of examination by the schools. 9.2 The Student Mybook 2018 explaining "what is ASSET" has been addressed to the parents. Had the ASSET been a case of providing services to schools only, there would not have been any occasion for the applicant to communicate with the parents of the students. 9.3 The Student Mybook contains a ....
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....which bears 20% weightage in the standard X Board Examination. The moot question is whether the ASSET can be said to be conducted by schools, even if it is used to evaluate the performance of students for giving internal marks by the schools. The answer to this is obviously no. Furthermore, the applicant has not submitted whether the ASSET is conducted as substitute for any regular / periodic examination to be conducted by the schools. There is also no submission by the applicant clarifying whether respective Boards (State Board, CBSE, ICSE etc.) recognize ASSET as internal examination conducted by the schools. As already noted, the ASSET may be taken for the group of subjects viz. English, Mathematics and Science and other optional subjects viz. Social Studies and Hindi. It is not forthcoming how the performance of students can be evaluated for giving internal marks in case where the students have taken ASSET only for group of subjects viz. English, Mathematics and Science and not for optional subjects viz. Social Studies and Hindi. 11.3 The applicant has also contended that ASSET is conducted by the schools by using their infrastructure and the applicant merely provides the ques....
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....ing the Education Sector has always been a sensitive issue, as education is seen more as a social activity than a business one. The Government has a constitutional obligation to provide free and compulsory elementary education to every child. Thus, to promote education, it would be beneficial if educational services are exempted from tax. However, commercialisation of education is also a reality. The distinction between core and ancillary education is blurring and education is now an organised industry with huge revenues. The GST Act tries to maintain a fine balance whereby core educational services provided and received by educational institutions are exempt and other services are sought to be taxed at the standard rate of 18%." We find that the aforesaid 'Flyer' echoes the spirit behind exemption granted to various specified educational services and levy of Goods and Services Tax on other educational services. Sl. No. 66 of Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) grants exemption to various educational services. We have elaborately discussed hereinabove whether the services provided by the applicant in the form of ASSET is covered under the said Sl. No. 66 of Notification No....
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....e designated place of the State Government Institutions. The content was to be provided by the respective State Government Institutions by soft copy / manuscript, by e-mail or otherwise. Again, in the case of Datacon Technologies [2020 (41) GSTL 380 (AAR-GST - Kar.)], the applicant therein was only given the job to scan the OMR Flying slip, OMR marks Foil with barcode sticker, scanning of OMR attendance sheet and scanning OMR Absentee sheet along with data extraction and finalization of data in all the four categories. 13.1.2 In the present case, the work of the applicant is not limited to printing of Question Papers. As already noted, in case of ASSET, the Questions Papers are set and printed by the applicant, its timings are fixed by the applicant, answers are assessed and result is given by the applicant. Thus, in case of ASSET, the entire gamut of activities is carried out by the applicant. It is evident that the facts in the cases of Edutest Solutions Pvt. Ltd., The Bangalore Printing and Publishing Co. Limited and Datacon Technologies are quite different than the present case and therefore the said decisions are not found to be applicable in the present case. 13.2.1 The app....