Page 98 - GSTL_20th August 2020_Vol 39_Part 3

312 GST LAW TIMES [ Vol. 39
of any certificates issued by statutory bodies duly recognized under
Law enacted by the Parliament.
(b) The demands in respect of the coaching provided for CPT (now
called CA-Foundation) and ICWA-Foundation (presently called
ICWA-Foundation) are sustainable since the coaching provided for
these courses does not lead to grant of any certificates recognized by
Law.
(c) The demands in respect of coaching provided for the Intermediate
course is not correct since the intermediate certificate issued by the
Board of Intermediate Education is a certificate recognized under
law but since the demand is sustainable as the applicant had not
provided the details of all the students to whom the coaching is
provided and since the applicant is collected more fee than that pre-
scribed by the Board of Intermediate Education.
3.4 The above orders were accepted by the Committee of Chief Com-
missioners of the department and the service tax department had not filed any
appeal against the said orders. However, the applicant filed appeals before the
Tribunal against the confirmation of demands on certain courses and the same
are pending before it. The applicant was even granted refund of the service tax
paid on such services by the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner and the de-
partment had not filed any appeal against such refund order.
3.5 The latest show cause notice was issued to the applicant for the pe-
riod from 1-4-2012 to 30-6-2017 demanding service tax on the coaching provided
by the applicant for the courses of CA and ICWA but the demand was dropped
by the Commissioner of Central Tax, Guntur both on merits and limitation.
3.6 With the introduction of the GST, the applicant desires to know
whether the same exemption provided under the Finance Act, 1994 is applicable
to him under the GST Law also since identical exemption was provided under
both the Laws. He accordingly filed the present application.
4. Applicant’s interpretation of law and facts :
4.1 Intention of the Government was always to keep the services pro-
vided in relation to education and medical services out of the ambit of service tax
as they are related to public welfare.
4.2 Under the service tax regime introduced since 1994, commercial
coaching or training was made a taxable service. However, Notification No.
33/2011-S.T., dated 25-4-2011 provided exemption to a commercial institute
providing any coaching that lead to any certificate recognized by law.
4.3 After the introduction of the negative list in the Finance Act, 1994
with effect from 1-7-2012, Section 66D(l)(ii) of the Act dealing with the exclusions
of certain services from the levy of service tax reads as follows :
“Education as a part of a curriculum for obtaining a qualification recog-
nized by any law for the time being in force’
4.4 This entry had been subsequently deleted vide Notification No.
9/2016-S.T., dated 1-3-2016 and the service of training or coaching in educational
activities provided by an educational institution is granted exemption from ser-
vice tax by way of amendment to Notification No. 25/2012-S.T. vide Entry No. 9.
The relevant entry is as follows :
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