2018 (10) TMI 746 – AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING, PUNJAB – 2018 (18) G. S. T. L. 273 (A. A. R. – GST) – Classification of supply – Lab Manual comprising bulk of instructional /educational printed material – whether printing is merely incidental to the primary use or not?
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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’?
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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.
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It is seen that this issue has bee
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in the major printed instructional material of the book.
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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.
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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. – AAR/GST/PB/004 Dated:- 13-8-2018 – NAVDEEP BHINDER AND G.S. BAINS, MEMBER Present for the Applicant: Sh. Naresh Chawla, Advocate (Note: An Appeal against this order lies with the Appellate Authority in terms of Section 99 and Section 100 of the CGST Act, 2017 and Section 99 and Section 100 of the PGST Act, 2017 within a period of thirty days from
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n 16.07.2018 before the Advance Ruling Authority, Punjab on which date Sh. Naresh Chawla, Advocate appeared on behalf of the applicant. The questions raised by the applicant have been discussed at length. The counsel for the dealer had submitted a detailed written submission, which is reproduced as under. Written submissions & synopsis by the Applicant in respect of application for Advance Ruling 1. The applicant industry is manufacturing the Lab Manuals called Books printed/published in accordance with the specified syllabus issued by CBSE for class VI to class XII which is written by the authors as per prescription by Educational Boards. It comprises of the entire syllabus of the practical subject described and consists of the comprehensive study material covering syllabus, questions/answers part & some leafs for the use of the students. The printed material is in book form which is covered under chapter 4901 attracting nil duty at entry no. 119 of Schedule of Exempted goods
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rial for education (Chapter-wise for student) & only few blank papers for exercise purpose are left. These books are written by an author as per syllabus issued and as prescribed by the board(s) are only printed by the printing/publishing industry. The printed material also comprises of the questions/answer part & the blank sheet is only meant for the exercise of the students. 3. The Lab Manual is designed in such form that it covers the text & the some vacant spaces for exercise. It is pertinent to mention here that the printed material in the form of text, question/answer is of the primary use whereas the vacant space of exercise is only incidental to the primary use of the book. The main object of the printed material is to provide the text of book as per syllabus to the student including the question/answer and this object is primary whereas the vacant sheet attached is only incidental for the formation of the books, Lab Manual is prescribed by CBSE for the student of c
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may also include printed texts for copying manually In common parlance they are more akin to handwriting note books for practicing rather than work books containing printed exercises. This definition of Exercise Books is in harmony with other items specified under Chapter Heading 4820 of erstwhile CETA, 1985 such as registers, note books, diaries, letter pads etc. where printing is incidental to their primary use i.e. writing. The fact that printing is incidental to their primary use is the guiding principle for classification of Exercise Books under heading 4820 of erstwhile CETA, 1985. 3. Printed work books on the Other hand are books where printing is not merely incidental to the primary use. HSN Explanatory notes (A) to the heading 49.01 reads as, Books and booklets consisting essentially of textual matter of any kind, and printed in any language or characters…include…textbooks (including educational workbooks sometimes called writing books), with or without narrative texts, w
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on in manuscript); technical publications; books for reference such as dictionaries, or without printed instructions, for completion by drawing or colouring; sometimes cultured illustrations for guidance are incorporated. They also include similar books with invisible outlines or colour which can be made visible by rubbing with a pencil or applying water with a paint brush, and also books in which the small amounts of water colour required for colouring are contained in the books (e.g., in the form of a palette). The issue of classification of text books and printed work text books was subject matter of CWP No. 7198 of 2016 = 2016 (9) TMI 323 – DELHI HIGH COURT before the Hon ble High Court of Delhi. It was claimed by the petitioner that the said goods are appropriately classifiable in Chapter 49 of the Central Excise Tariff Act, whereas the department was considering classification as exercise books in Chapter 48 (4820) of Central Excise Tariff Act. The Hon ble High Court of Delhi vid
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s, there may be considerable amount of printed matter but the printing is incidental to their primary use of writing by hand. It is observed that the main feature which differentiates Work Books of heading 4901 from the Exercise Books of heading 4820 is that whereas the Work books of heading 4901 contain questions or exercise with space for writing the answers whereas, the Exercise Books of heading 4820 contain printed texts with space for copying manually. Discussion and Findings : 1. We have carefully gone through the facts of the case and the relevant legal and administrative instructions applicable in the present case. After going through the material supplied by the applicant , it is seen that the question which has been raised by the applicant can be framed as – 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 stud
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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, who has been described above, 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. Hence it becomes clear after balancing the facts of
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ntext of classification under the erstwhile Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985, the ratio of these Circulars would be equally applicable to classification under the GST Tariff as chapter 48 and 49 are based on the same lines in both these Tariffs. 6. In view of the above discussions and findings, we reach the conclusion that the Lab Manual being published by the applicant which comprises 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. 7. Accordingly we pronounce the following Advance Ruling under section 98(4) of the CGST Act, 2017 and section 98(4) of the Punjab GST Act, 2017 to the question raised by the applicant: The Lab Manual being published by the applicant which comprises of a bulk of instructional /educational printed material as per syllabus of education
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