Karnataka Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR) rendered, that there is no GST levied on the services of educating and training farmers towards agroforestry via scientific research and knowledge.
The two-member bench of M.P. Ravi Prasad and T.Kiran Reddy sees that the petitioners via their mara Mitras, not only teach and train farmers with respect to the agroforestry via scientific research and knowledge, but indeed engaged in hand-holding the farmers from recording demand for saplings, picking up the samplings from nurseries to their plantation, and tracks after plantation survival.
The petitioner an enrolled individual under GST law, goes into a service contract with M/s Isha Outreach, a public charitable trust, to provide farmers in the Cauvery River Basin with agricultural extension services for tree-based agriculture.
Beneath the service contract, the petitioner will select Mara Mitras and additional agriculture extension workers (AEW) to furnish agricultural extension services, along with the farmer’s education and training with regard to agroforestry, via applying scientific research and knowledge. Isha Outreach trains mara Mitras i.e precisely curated state-of-the-art information technology platform via which they communicate technical and scientific details, and methods to grow timber, horticulture, and sericulture trees on their land.
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Mara Mitras accumulates the details of the farmers along with information on land and species-wise particulars of trees that farmers want to plant. Towards the pick up of samplings from the nursery, the Handholding of farmers would be implemented. Post-plantation and survival of trees would be collected via geo-tagged photographs and geo-locations of every planted tree. Taluk Managers, District Managers, and Project Managers for the State for the project are being appointed by the petitioner.
The petitioner seeks for advanced ruling on the problem of if the services of educating and training farmers furnished by the petitioner beneath the service contract between the petitioner and M/s Isha Outreach are exempt from GST.
The petitioner, the definition of “agriculture extension” beneath para 2(C) of Notification No.9/2017-Integrated Tax(Rate) expresses that the services furnished to M/s Isha Outreach beneath the service contract would come under the “agriculture extension services”. Thus, the services shall get exempted towards entry No.57 of Notification No.9/2017-Integrated Tax(Rate) on 28.06.2017.
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AAR revealed that the word “agricultural extension” would be described as the application of scientific research and knowledge to agricultural approaches via farmer education or training.
AAR sees that the petitioner via mara Mitras furnishes education and training to the farmers for the cultivation of plants through applying scientific research and knowledge. All the additional activities of the petitioner were done via mara through the selection of saplings to the supporting in transportation and planting to track the survival of plants would get concerned to the agricultural extension activity. Hence the services of the petitioner would come beneath the agricultural extension services.
