The bench of Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR) ordered that from now on 18% GST (Goods and Services Tax) will be charged on the leasing charges of the cold storage for agricultural produce.
The judgement was ruled in an application filed by M/s Gubba Cold Storage Pvt. Ltd. who deals with the storing and warehousing of different agricultural produces including rice, pluses among others. The applicant rents or leases the machinery for agriculture, or an unoccupied land or without a structure incidental to its use, all for the purpose of agricultural use only. He claimed that the leased premises are exempted from GST as they are using it for the storage of agricultural produce but the lessor insisted them to pay the GST on the lease charges but the applicant denied the payment of GST stating that they are using it for the storage of agricultural products only.
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The applicant sought the AAR to get a ruling on the GST to be charged according to the provisions of the GST regime on the leasing charges of the cold storage for agricultural produce, the rate of tax to be charged for the lease of cold storage with or without preservation and maintenance to the private firm and the rate of GST for the storage and/or warehousing of the agricultural products and/or seeds on the behalf of farmers and traders.
The bench of the AAR had Additional Commissioner of State Tax J. Laxminarayana and Joint Commissioner of Central Tax B. Raghukiran as members who ruled that 18% Goods and Services Tax 
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The bench cleared that the exemption, as sought in the application, applies to the storage and warehousing of agricultural products as defined in clause 2(d) of Not. No. 12/2017-CT (R) dated June 28, 2017, or as amended.
