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2018 (10) TMI 746 - AAR - GSTClassification of supply - Lab Manual comprising bulk of instructional /educational printed material - whether printing is merely incidental to the primary use or not? Whether ‘Lab manual’ written by authors as prescribed by Educational Boards and which also contains, apart from chapter wise printed material and printed question and answers, some blank sheets / papers for exercise by students, would be classified under GST Tariff heading 4901 as ‘Printed Books’ which carries Nil rate of tax or would it be classified under the GST tariff heading 4820 which attracts tax @ of 12% (CGST + SGST) under the description ‘ Laboratory Notebooks’? Held that:- ‘Lab Manual’ is primarily a printed book in the major part with a smaller, yet not insignificant part dedicated to providing blank space to the students to do his/her written exercises. It is seen that this issue has been discussed in CBEC Circulars no- 1052/01/2017-cx dated 23.02.2017 and No. 1057/06/2017-cx dated 07.07.2017. As per Circular dated 07.07.2017, in case of Printed workbooks, where printing is not merely incidental to the primary use of the goods, it has been held such goods classified under printed workbooks fall in chapter 49, in contrast to cases where printing is incidental to the primary use i.e writing in which cases the goods have been held classified under the chapter heading 4820. In the present case, perusal of sample lab manual supplied by the applicant, clearly shows that printing is not merely incidental to the primary use, but actually forms a major part of the book and fulfills the primary objective of imparting knowledge to the student. Rather writing becomes the incidental part in the case on hand as the blank pages providing space to the students to write form a lesser part of the Lab manual and enables the students to write in the context of what they have learnt in the major printed instructional material of the book. The Lab Manuals being published by the applicant are rightly classifiable under the GST Tariff heading 4901 as ‘printed books’ and would consequently carry Nil rate of tax which is presently applicable to the said heading. Ruling:- The Lab Manual being published by the applicant which comprises of a bulk of instructional /educational printed material as per syllabus of educational board and which also contains some blank pages for the students to practice or write, would be classified under GST Tariff heading 4901 as printed books which currently carry a Nil rate of tax.
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