The West Bengal bench of the Authority for Advance Ruling ( AAR ) observed that Printing and supply of Bilingual parental calendar to Jharkhand Education Project Council ( JEPC ) was supply of service
The bench observed that the issue was to decide the taxability of printing and supply of “Bilingual Parental Calendar” as awarded by Jharkhand Education Project Council ( JEPC ). The applicant submits that it was not an ordinary calendar but a Self Learning Calendar which not only indicates dates but also includes relevant study material and activities to be performed and matters relevant for the students. The intention was for the students to study/ perform the stated activities within the given dates. The outcome of such activities would then be evaluated in examination.
The authorized representative of the applicant has produced before us a copy of such calendar as sample to contend that the item itself is an educational material for the children as part of their curriculum and is essentially a booklet designed with knowledge content/ activity schedule and the corresponding dates are just ancillary data to make the former more tenable. Hence the primary nature of the calendar is that of a Printed Book in the form of a Booklet for the learning of the school pupils.
As per Wikipedia, a calendar was a system of organizing days. This was done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date was the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar was also a physical record ( often paper ) of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as a court calendar, or a partly or fully chronological list of documents, such as a calendar of wills. As per Cambridge Dictionary, “calendar” inter alia means a list of events and dates within a particular year that are important for an organization or for the people involved in a particular activity. It therefore appears that if a calendar was designed for a specific purpose , showing the activities to be undertaken on different dates, still it bears the basic characteristic of a calendar. From the specimen copy of the calendar produced in the course of personal hearing,
The bench found that the calendar aims to provide parents with a simple and easy to access repository of resources and daily activity plans to promote meaningful and sustained engagements between parents and children. Undisputedly this calendar is meant for a specific group of people. But this very purpose cannot qualify the calendar to be a booklet, as contended by the applicant.
The bench contended that the supply of books, pamphlets, brochures, envelopes, annual reports, leaflets, cartons, boxes etc. printed with logo, design, name, address or other contents supplied by the recipient of such printed goods, are composite supplies and the question, whether such supplies constitute supply of goods or services would be determined on the basis of what constitutes the principal supply. Here the recipient namely JEPC provided the content for printing and the applicant undertakes the printing work using the paper and ink purchased by him and thereafter supplies the calendar to the recipient
The bench found the supply to be a composite supply where the predominant element was printing of the calendar. The supply of the material of printing is only ancillary to the main supply. As we find that supply of printing services was the principal supply, the same is classifiable under Tariff Code 998912 being, printing and reproduction services of recorded media, on a fee or contract basis.
The two member bench of the tribunal comprising Dr Tanisha Dutta ( member ) and Joy Jit Banik ( member ) concluded that Printing and supply of “Bilingual Parental Calendar” to JEPC would be treated as supply of services.
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