NIL GST on Security Services to Govt : AAR

The Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR), Gujarat, has ruled that any corporate providing security services and/or supplying manpower to the Central, State or Local Governments or any other government authority is eligible to claim an exemption of GST (Goods and Services Tax) for providing such services if the authority over the services are provided to the Panchayats under Article 243G of the Constitution of India or to the Municipalities under Article 243W of the Constitution of India.

The ruling was made in a question raised by the applicant M/s. A. B. Enterprises, a partnership firm registered under the GST Act 2017, engaged in the business of providing manpower supply to the Governmental as well as the Non-Governmental Entities for the past few years. Such manpower is supplied for cleaning, security, housekeeping, data entry operators, among various others, to the entities. The firm had been provided with the tender for supplying manpower by the government department after successful bidding from all the suppliers. The contract was to supply manpower, exclusive of any supply of goods.

The applicant sought the ruling of the AAR on the subject as to whether one can claim an exemption of GST according to “Sr.No.3 of Notification No.12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 for Pure services (supply of manpower, security service) as provided to the Central Government, State Government, Local Authorities, Governmental Authorities, or any other Government Entity”.

The bench of the Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR), with Sanjay Saxena and Mohit Agarwal as the members, ruled that all the suppliers are eligible to claim an exemption of GST (Goods and Services Tax) for providing security services and/or supplying manpower only if the authority over such services are provided to the Panchayats under Article 243G of the Constitution of India or to the Municipalities under Article 243W of the Constitution of India.

AAR said, “The applicant is eligible to claim exemption benefit under Sr.No.3 of Notification No.12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 for pure services (supply of manpower, security service) provided to Central Government, State Government, Local Authorities, Governmental Authorities, Government Entities as detailed above for the reasons discussed hereinabove subject to the condition that the services provided to these entities mentioned above are services provided by way of any activity in relation to any function entrusted to a Panchayat under Article 243G of the Constitution of India or in relation to any function entrusted to a Municipality under Article 243W of the Constitution of India. Therefore, the exemption sought by the applicant will depend upon the nature of services provided by them in terms of specific contracts entered by them with respective service recipients.”

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