A circular issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) today clarifiedtaxability of various services supplied by Centre and State Boards such as National Board of Examination (NBE) where it was said that no GST is leviable on services include entrance examination ( on charging a fee) for admission to educational institution, input services for conducting such entrance examination for students. However, the circular clarified that the services relating to accreditation of educational institutions or professional so as to authorize them to provide their respective services would be chargeable to GST.
NBE provides services of conducting entrance examinations for admission to courses including Diplomat National Board (DNB) and Fellow of National Board (FNB), prescribes courses and curricula for PG medical studies, holds examinations and grant degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions. It carries out all functions as are normally carried out by central or state educational boards and is thus a central educational board.
According to explanation 3(iv) of the notification No. 12/ 2017 CTR, “Central and State Educational Boards” are treated as Educational Institution for the limited purpose of providing services by way of conduct of examination to the students.Therefore, NBE is an ‘Educational Institution’ in so far as it provides services by way of conduct of examination, including any entrance examination, to the students.
Taking into account the above, the GST Council has recommended on its last meeting held on 28th May 2021,the circular clarified that“GST is exempt on services provided by Central or State Boards ( including the boards such as NBE) by way of conduct of examination for the students, including conduct of entrance examination for admission to educational institution [under S. No. 66 (aa) of notif No. 12/2017-CT(R)]. Therefore, GST shall not apply to any fee or any amount charged by such Boards for conduct of such examinations including entrance examinations.”
Further, “GST is also exempt on input services relating to admission to, or conduct of examination, such as online testing service, result publication, printingof notification for examination, admit card and questions papers etc, when provided to such Boards [under S. No. 66 (b) (iv) of notif No. 12/2017- CT(R)].”
“GST at the rate of 18% applies to other services provided by such Boards, namely of providing accreditation to an institution or to a professional ( accreditation fee or registration fee such as fee for FMGE screening test ) so as to authorise them to provide their respective services,” the circular added.
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