Odisha State’s Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (AAAR) has held that head office driven Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) services executed through deputed service engineers do not create a place of business or fixed establishment in the state. Hence, no separate GST registration is required in the State.

Disposing an appeal against the order of the State’s Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR), AAAR said that per GST law, a person is liable to be registered in the State or Union Territory from where he/ she makes the taxable supply. In the case of applicant, AAAR observed that all transactions were made from their Head Office located in Maharashtra and no separate transactions are made from the Appellant Odisha. All invoices are issued from the HO of the Appellant.

“The services provided by the Appellant Company to the customers of Odisha are made through their FSES placed in Odisha. In view of the above, we observe that the appellant does not require any separate registration in Odisha under provisions of Section 22 or 24 of the CGST/ OGST Act, 2017,’ AAAR said in a recent ruling. Earlier, AAR ruled that registration in Odisha is required. Now, this has been kept aside.

According to AAAR, ‘Fixed Establishment’ is exclusively for the supplier of services and related to the place other than the registered place. The Appellant is a service provider who operates from their HO in Mumbai with all agreements and financial transactions being made from the HO of the Appellant. The services provided by the Appellant are performed through their Field Service Engineers who are employees of the appellant company. In Odisha, the presence of the Appellant Company is through their FSEs (Field Service Engineers) only.

The post-sale ‘Fixed Establishment’ is exclusively for the supplier of services and related to the place other than the registered place. The appellant is a service provider who operates from their HO in Mumbai with all agreements and financial transactions being made from the HO of the appellant. The services provided by the appellant are performed through their Field Service engineers who are employees of the Appellant Company.

“In Odisha, the presence of the Appellant Company is through their FSEs only. The post-sale service provided by the Appellant Company can also be met with other FSES located elsewhere in India. Therefore, the permanence of the Appellant in Odisha is not noticed due to the fact that all the transactions are conducted from the HO of the Appellate Company,” AAAR said.

Source: The Hindu Business Line