Appellant cannot be treated as Local Authority merely for registration as Local Authority with Income Tax & GST Department

In re Indian Hume Pipe Company Ltd (GST AAAR Karnataka)

The Appellant has also taken pains to emphasise that BWSSB has been registered with the Income Tax Department and the GST Department as a ‘local authority’; that when both the departments have acknowledged the status of BWSSB as a local authority and accordingly granted them a PAN and GSTIN, the lower Authority cannot take a u-turn and change the status of BWSSB to a Governmental Authority and not a local authority. This argument does not impress us much. GST Registrations are granted based on the information furnished by the applicant. In the application for registration, BWSSB have declared their constitution of business as a ‘local authority’ since Section 9(2) of the BWSSB Act states that for the purposes of the said Act, the Board shall be deemed to be a local authority. However, when it comes to determining the rate of tax applicable on the supplies made by the Appellant, which is dependant on whether the supplies have been made to a local authority or not, it is necessary to examine in detail whether BWSSB qualifies to be termed as a local authority in terms of the definition of ‘local authority’ as given in Section 2(69) of the CGST Act. In so examining, we find that BWSSB does not qualify as a ‘local authority’ as defined in Section 2(69) of the CGST Act. Accordingly, we hold that with effect from 1st January 2022, the Appellant is not eligible for concessional rate of tax of 12% in terms of entry Sl.No 3(iii) of Notification No 11/2017 CT (Rate) dated 28-06-2017 as amended by Notification No 15/2021 CT (Rate) dated 18-11-2021 on the supplies made to BWSSB. We uphold the order passed by the lower Authority with regard to the rate of applicable tax on the supplies of works contract service made by the Appellant to BWSSB with effect from 1st January 2022.

We uphold the Advance Ruling No. KAR/ADRG 23/2022 dated 12-08-2022 and dismiss the appeal filed by The Indian Hume Pipe Company Limited on all counts.

FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF APPELLATE AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING, KARNATAKA

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