Shanti Prime Publication Pvt. Ltd.
Authority for Advance Ruling — Taxability on Printing of Religious Text from foreign Publisher – The applicant engaged in the business of printing, sought a ruling on whether activities undertaken by procuring orders from a foreign party to print religious texts and thereafter deliver them to various places in India can be classified as “supply of goods” or “supply of services” and whether this activity can be classified as export. The Authority relied serial no. 4 of TRU Clarification issued under F. No. 354/263/2017-TRU dated 20th October 2017 by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Government of India, which stated that in case of printing of books, pamphlets, brochures, annual reports, and the like, where only content is supplied by the publisher or the person who owns the usage rights to the intangible inputs while the physical inputs including paper used for printing belongs to the printer, supply of printing [of content supplied by the recipient of supply] is the principal supply and therefore such supplies would constitute supply of service falling under heading 9989 of the scheme of classification of services.
Held that:- The Hon’ble Authority for Advance Ruling held that the Applicant’s activity of printing the Bible under the specific orders received from foreign publisher is a supply of service classifiable under SAC 9989. The above service is supplied to the recipient located in India and the consideration is apparently received in INR. The Applicant is, therefore, liable to pay GST under the appropriate Act on such supplies.Swapna Printing Works Private Limited, In Re…. [2018] 7 TAXLOK.COM 034 (AAR-WB)