The West Bengal Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) has ruled that the services of printing of question papers for examinations to educational institutions are exempt from Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The applicant, Saraswaty Press Limited, is engaged in the business of printing, including the printing of question papers for educational institutions. The applicant sought clarification regarding the tax applicability on the service of printing question papers for educational institutions.
The applicant sought clarity on whether the service of printing question papers for the conduct of examinations for educational institutions would be exempt from GST under Sl. No 66 of the Notification No. 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) as amended. The applicant has been undertaking the job of printing question papers for different Universities of various states and charging GST on invoices raised for such services. All its clients are primarily Government Based – both Central and State Governments.
The applicant submitted that one of his clients – Jharkhand University of Technology is of the view that the services provided by the applicant to them by way of printing of question paper to conduct examination is exempted from payment of tax in terms of Notification No.12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 as amended vide Notification No. 2/2018 – Central Tax (Rate) dated 25.01.2018 and therefore the aforesaid client, by way of a letter ref No: 507-1015/2023/1040 dated 31/5/2023, had asked for a refund of integrated tax charged by the applicant on supply of such services.
The applicant has also been requested not to charge GST in all future bills/ invoices for the services supplied for the aforesaid purposes. Further, a refund of Rs. 12,90,814/- paid as GST by the University towards the services supplied by way of printing of question papers has also been claimed.
It was submitted that in terms of entry at serial no 66 of the aforesaid Notification and subsequent clarification given in Circular No. 151/07/2021-GST dated 17.06.2021 issued by the Tax Research Unit, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India that supply of input services by way of printing of question papers, admit card to the university is not subject to tax and the university is not required to pay GST on such supply of input services to conduct such examination.
The Authority Bench of Members Dr Tanisha Datta and Joyjit Banik observed that, “the supply of services for printing of question papers being provided by the applicant to different universities for conducting examinations shall get covered under serial number 66 of the Notification No. 12/2017- Central Tax (Rate) dated 28th June, 2017/West Bengal State Notification No. 1136 FT. dated 28.06.2017, as amended.”
The Authority thus ruled that the service of printing question papers for educational institutions falls under Sl. No 66 of the mentioned notification and is exempt from GST.
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