New Delhi: Maharashtra’s Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) for GST has upheld that the use of tourist cabs for transportation of Covid patients will attract Goods and Services Tax as it rejected the plea by a taxi service company that offered its services to a public authority – Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and later claimed exemption on this ground.
In the hearing before the Advance Ruling Authority, the GST officials contended that the vehicles were not covered under the definition of the ambulance.“It is only a car and not a single change was made in the Innova to convey that it was an ambulance,” they said in their submissions to the ARA.
Secondly, the department said, these vehicles were not registered with RTO for use as ambulances and the provision of service by the travel company was not covered under the public health-related pure service supplied to local authorities - Panchayats and municipalities to claim the exemption under the GST. The department said the provision of service was liable to be taxed at 18% GST along with the payment of compensation cess.
In its order, the Advance Ruling Authority said the travel company was not able to prove that Innova vehicles supplied by them were converted into ambulances or were registered as such. The ARA said the applicants were also not able to prove that these vehicles were only used for the transportation of Covid patients.
The two-member bench of Rajiv Magoo and TR Ramnani said the provision of service to MCGM cannot be treated as exemption and was liable to pay GST.
Harsh ruling: Tax expert
The Maharashtra Advanced Ruling Authorities decision to uphold the levy of GST on the use of private vehicles with tourist permit to ferry Covid patients has attracted criticism from tax experts.
Delhi based chartered accountant Rajat Mohan says the Covid-19 global pandemic is one of the biggest natural calamities in the history of mankind for which no one was prepared.
He said the authority justified the ruling on three grounds as the vehicles were neither converted into ambulances nor were registered as ambulances with the RTO and the applicant tour company was not able to prove that the vehicles were only used for transport of Covid patients, which is not correct.
“Taxing the transportation of COVID-19 passengers on behalf of a government agency is a harsh ruling that fails to appreciate the risk endured by such businesses,” Rajat Mohan told ETV Bharat.
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