GST Exemption granted to Primary Activity does not ipso facto exempt GST Registration: Andhra Pradesh HC [Read Order]

The Andhra Pradesh High Court held that the GST Exemption granted to the primary activity does not ipso facto exempt GST registration.

The petitioner, M/s. ASR Hospitals (India) Pvt. Ltd. took the stand that it was an entity involved in the business of Healthcare Services, which were exempted from payment of Goods and Services Tax by notification No.9/2017-Integrated Tax (Rate), dated 28.06.2017, and as such the petitioner was exempted from registering it under the GST Act and the requirement of producing GST registration certificate would not apply to the petitioner.

The respondent took the stand that the production of a GST registration certificate is a mandatory requirement for being qualified in the technical bid and in view of the non-furnishing of such GST registration certificate, the petitioner had been disqualified. As far as the submission of the bid document, the respondent contended that there is no requirement in the tender conditions that only the lead member of the consortium has to submit the bid and as such the submission of the bid by the 3rd respondent is not defective. The respondent submitted that the M/s. Integrated Health Group Pvt. Ltd. had produced certificates issued by the NRI Academy of Sciences for complying with the minimum eligibility criteria of three years experience in operations and maintenance of SNCUs and its bid was also qualified at the technical bid stage.

Mr. V.R. Reddy Kovvuri, learned counsel for the petitioner, would submit that once the primary activity of the petitioner had been exempted from the purview of GST Act, the respondent ought not to have insisted upon a GST registration certificate as the same is not necessary as far as the petitioner is concerned.

The division bench of Justice R. Raghunandan Rao held that the Petitioner has not been able to make out any case of discrimination or bias against the Respondents. The only ground that could be raised by the petitioner is that of an arbitrary action of the Respondent, in rejecting the bid of the Petitioner and allowing the Respondents to participate in the financial bids. It would now be necessary to see whether the said allegations hold.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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