Tuesday, 29 January 2019

Cross Charge Vs ISD-Activities performed by the Employees at Corporate Office providing the services in the course of or in relation to employment- treated as taxable supply as per entry 2 of schedule I



Name of Appellant: Columbia Asia Hospitals Private Limited

Brief of Order-in-Appeal (OIA) :
The appallate authority for advance ruling upheld the rulings passed under section 98(4) of the GST Act 2017 vide NO.KAR ADRG 15/2018 dated 27/07/2018 i.e. wherein the activities performed by the Employees at IMO ( "India Management Office (IMO)" i.e Corporate Office) providing the services in the course of or in relation to employment such as accounting, administrative and IT system management to their distinct units located at other state is treated as taxable supply as per entry 2 of schedule I appended to Act, read with section 7 of the CGST Act 2017

Appeal Order No. & Date:
KAR/AAAR/Appeal-05/2018 dated 12-12-2018
AAR Order No. & Date, against which Appeal has been filed. : KAR/AAR-15/2018 dated 27-07-2018


The appellant filed an application on 1403.2018 before the Karnataka Authority for  Advance Ruling under Section 97 Of CGST/KGST Act, 2017 read with Rule 104 Of CGST/KGST Rules, 2017 in form GST ARA-01 , seeking a ruling on the following question:
Whether the activities performed by the employees at the Corporate Office in the  Course of or in relation to employment, such as accounting, other administrative  and IT System Maintenance for the units located in the other states as well i.e  distinct persons as per Section 25(4) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act) shall be treated as supply as per Entry 2 of Schedule I of the  CGST act or it shall not be treated as supply Of Service as per entry I Of Schedule III of the CGST Act?

However, with respect to employee cost there are no invoices raised by the management Office treating the same as activities carried out by employees in the course of or in relation to his employment which does not amount to supply of service. The Appellant explained before the Authority that, the activities carried out by employees from the IMO for accounting and other administrative functions with respect to other units, would amount to supply Of services between distinct persons Without consideration as per Entry I Of Schedule I. However, by virtue Of specific relaxation provided in Entry I of Schedule Ill of the CGST Act, which states that "Services by an employee to the employer in the Course of or in relation to his employment" shall not be treated as supply of service. the same shall not be treated as Supply Of services

As per entry 2 of schedule 1 of the CGST Act, any supply between distinct persons is to be treated as a “supply” in terms of Section 7 of the said Act, In view of this deeming fiction in the law, the service supplied by the IMO to its other units by way of performing activities which benefits the other distinct persons is liable to be charged to GST. In accounting terminology this concept is referred to as “cross charge”. The IMO will cross Charge the other units of the same entity, the cost Of rendering its services which benefit its other units, by raising a tax invoice and charging applicable GST. The valuation for the supply of the service rendered by the IMO to the  other distinct persons will be done in terms of Rule 28 or 30 of the CGST Rules, In arriving at the cost of provision of the service by the IMO, the cost of employees working in the IMO has to be factored into. This is because the activities performed at the IMO cannot be done without human workforce and hence the cost Of such workforce is an integral part of the service provided by the IMO.

In the case of cross charge, there is an element of service rendered by the person who cross charges his other units even though they belong to the same legal entity. On the other hand, in the case Of ISD, there is no element of Service at all, but a mere distribution Of Credit Further,  certain expenses like rent paid on the immovable property, housekeeping services, etc incurred in maintaining and operating the IMO will not be distributable under the ISD route, rather they are required to be allocated to the Other units only by way Of cross charge. Therefore, the argument of the Appellant that the ISD mechanism is squarely applicable to them and not the cross charge method is not legally correct The ISD mechanism is purely for the purpose of distributing the CGST/SGST/IGST tax on the receipt of input services by the office of the supplier of taxable goods or services or both having the same PAN. The ISD mechanism is subject to certain  conditions laid down in Section 20 of the CGST Act, As per the ISD provisions, the office of the supplier of taxable goods or services Or both receives tax invoices for input services which are used by all their units having the same PAN. The ITC on such invoices is distributed to the Other units having the same PAN

In view of the above discussions, we uphold the Ruling dated 27.07.2018 passed by the Karnataka Authority for Advance Ruling as under:

The India Management Office (IMO) of the Appellant is providing a service to its other distinct units by way of carrying out activities such as accounting, administrative work, etc with the use Of the services Of the employees working in the IMO, the outcome of which benefits all the other units and such activity is to be treated as a taxable supply in terms Of the entry 2 of Schedule I read with Section 7 of the CGST Act 

The appeal is disposed off in the above manner,


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