TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (7) TMI 355
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....by fraud or suppression of material facts or misrepresentation of facts, shall render such ruling to be void ab initio in accordance with Section 104 of the Act. 5. The provisions of both the Central Goods and Services Tax Act and the Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act (herein referred to as an Act) are the same except for certain provisions. Therefore, unless a mention is specifically made to such dissimilar provisions, a reference to the Central Goods and Services Tax Act would also mean a reference to the same provisions under the Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act. M/s. Access Healthcare Services Private Limited, Kochar Technology Park, SP-31A, Ambattur Industrial Estate, Chennai-600058 (hereinafter called as the applicant) are registered under the GST Act with GSTIN: 33AAJCA1885HIZN. The applicant is a company incorporated in India under the Indian Companies Act, having its registered office at Chennai, Tamil Nadu and engaged in the business of providing Information technology (IT) and Information technology Enabled Services (ITeS) for health sector. The company offers business process outsourcing, applications services, and robotic process automation tools to heal....
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....strictions as may be prescribed and in the manner specified in section 49, be entitled to take credit of input tax charged on any supply of goods or services or both to him which are used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of his business and the said amount shall be credited to the electronic credit ledger of such person." 5.2. The applicant stated that in the light of above mentioned provisions, it shall be noticed that in order to 'avail ITC on any inward supply', the supply should be used in the course or furtherance of business. This inference finds support in the FAQs on GST published by the CBIC dated 31 March 2017. Relevant question and answer thereto is reproduced below: "Q 4. is credit of all input tax charged on supply of goods or services allowed under Ans. A registered person is entitled to take credit of input tax charged on supply of goods or services or both to him which are used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of business, subject to other conditions and restrictions." 5.3. The applicant further stated that firstly from the phrase "used or intended to be used", it can be fairly inferred that the e....
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....l be entitled to the credit of any input tax in respect of any supply of goods or services or both to him unless,- (a) he is in possession of a tax invoice or debit note issued by a supplier registered under this Act, or such other tax paying documents as may be prescribed; (aa) the details of the invoice or debit note referred to in clause (a) has been furnished by the supplier in the statement of outward supplies and such details have been communicated to the recipient of such invoice or debit note in the manner specified under section 37; (b) he has received the goods or services or both- Explanation.-For the purposes of this clause, it Shall be deemed that the registered person has received the goods or, as the case may be, services (i) where the goods are delivered by the supplier to a recipient or any other person on the direction of such registered person, whether acting as an agent or otherwise, before or during movement of goods, either by way of transfer of documents of title to goods or otherwise; (ii) where the services are provided by the supplier to any person on the direction of and on account of such registered p....
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....tion 17 (5) is hereby reproduced below for reference: (5) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) of section 16 and sub-section (1) of section 18, input tax credit shall not be available in respect of the following, namely: (a) motor vehicles and other conveyances except when they are used- (i) for making the following taxable supplies, namely:- (A) further supply of such vehicles or conveyances ; or (B) transportation of passengers; or (ii) membership of a club, health and fitness centre; (iii) rent-a-cab, life insurance and health insurance except where (A) the Government notifies the services which are obligatory for an employer to provide to its employees under any law for the time being in force; or (B) such inward supply of goods or services or both of a particular category is used by a registered person for making an outward taxable supply of the same category of goods or services or both or as part of a taxable composite or mixed supply; and (iv) Travel benefits extended to employees on vacation such as leave or home travel concession;.." 5.8. The applicant Stated that....
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....e largely simplified the provisions on credit availment, staying true to the objective of preventing cascading effect of That in this light, the industry ushered in the GST regime With earnest belief of the credit provisions enhancing business commercials as also greatly expanding the tax net by bringing earlier unorganized players into the organized sector, 5.14. The applicant submitted that the Indian Staffing Federation is the apex body representing the Staffing industry / Private Employment Services that is authorised to discuss with government agencies and other trade bodies on behalf of the staffing industry/ private employment services. The JSF constitute of several professional organized staffing companies, including the proposed vendor(s) of the Applicant. 5.15. That as cited in The Economic Times dated on 01-June-2018, in the pre-GST regime, the unorganized contract staffing sector had a pricing advantage as they did not pay service tax. However, Post-GST implementation the availability of input tax credit (ITC) has prompted companies to increase their hiring of such temporary staffing services and is fundamentally restructuring the entire staffing business in India....
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....as given an opportunity to be heard in person on 09.01.2024. Shri. Aravind Baskaran, Chartered Accountant and Abhishek Ganahari, Chartered Accountant who are the Authorized Representatives of the Applicant appeared for the hearing and they reiterated the submissions made in their application. Further they submitted additional submissions, wherein sample services agreement and sample copy of invoices were submitted. The members requested them to submit input and output services rendered / to be rendered by the applicant, for which it was stated that they would submit at the earliest. 8. Additional Submission The applicant vide letter dated 20.02.2024 made additional submissions against the advance ruling application. They submitted that with regard to certain documents sought for perusal by the members of the advance ruling during the personal hearing on 09.01.2024 they the following submissions: 8.1. Clarification on the outward supplies provided by Access Healthcare using the human resources of Quess Corp Limited The applicant submitted that the Company is in the business of Revenue Cycle Management, which helps hospitals, physicians and healthcare providers. Theref....
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....e the same meaning as set out in the Agreement. To the extent that this Statement of Work is inconsistent with or conflicts with the Agreement, this Statement of Work shall amend and supersede those inconsistent or conflicting terms of the Agreement. In all other respects, the Agreement shall remain in full force and effect according to its terms. The SOW is effective from 23rd May 2022 ("SOW Effective Date") and comprises the following and any attachments/ schedules hereto. 1 SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PARTIES: Client Representative Details: Vivin Anto Company Representative Details: 2. OBLIGATIONS OF THE PARTIES TO THE AGREEMENT a. Recruitment Client will provide clear specifications for the nature of the services required from the Company, in order to help source and recruit the Associates. Company shall ensure that the Associates have cleared the Company's internal selection processes and meet Client's requirements as specified under the respective SOW. b. Placement Client will intimate the locations where the Services of the Associates would be needed. Client will send a writt....
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....s Any justifiable expense incurred by the Company under this SOW and mutually agreed by and in between the Company and Client, will be reimbursed by Client. Further, Client agrees to reimburse the associates expenses, if any i. Medical Expenses Upon Client's discretion and instruction, a medical checkup for every Associate can be arranged, expenses of which will be borne by the Client. j. Background verification Upon Client's discretion and instruction, background verification for every Associate can be arranged, expenses of which will be borne by the Client. k. Industry-specific Checks Upon Client's discretion and instruction, Company shall preform License/ permit verifications and fingerprinting for certain positions. Client agrees to pay the Company all related costs associated with providing such Services plus an administrative fee. I. Reports Company agrees to provide the reports pertaining to the Associates, as mutually agreed between the Parties from time to time. m. Additional Services Company may provide additional services beyond its express obligations under this Agreeme....
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.... between the applicant and Quess Corp Limited along with sample copies of the invoices issued by Quess Corp Limited in similar transactions. DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS: 10.1 We have carefully considered the submissions made by the applicant in their application, submissions made during the personal hearing and the comments furnished by State Tax jurisdictional officer. 10.2 The applicant submits that they are engaged in the business of providing Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) for healthcare sector. They offer business process outsourcing, applications services, and robotic process automation tools to healthcare providers, payers and related service providers. That being in the IT/ITes space, human resources form the backbone of their activities and technically qualified resources is a key to the operations of the business of the applicant. They further state that the job market is volatile and it is found extremely onerous to identify, train, recruit and retain suitable resources. Therefore, the applicant is considering hiring the service of professional contract-staffing firm(s) to avail certain human resource management and re....
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....ds or services or both, (iii) Subject to the provisions of section 41, the tax charged in respect of such supply has been actually paid to the Government, either in cash or through utilization of input tax credit admissible in respect of the said supply; and (iv) He has furnished the return under section 39 (v) Where the registered person has claimed depreciation on the tax component of the cost of capital goods and plant and machinery under the provisions of the Income tax Act, 1961, the input tax credit on the said tax component shall not be allowed In the instant case the above conditions (i) to (iv) are to be fulfilled by the applicant to be eligible for claiming input tax credit. The condition mentioned at sl no (v) is not relevant in the instant case as the same pertains to availment of input tax credit on capital goods and plant and machinery, whereas the supplies to be received by the applicant are contract staffing services. 10.6, Further we agree with the applicants' submission that the GST paid by the applicant on availing contract staffing services is not a blocked credit as per section 17 (5) (b) (iii) as below: (5) Notwith....