Order Date: 08 June 2022

Facts – 

• The applicant, M/S Patle Eduskills Foundation, is engaged in the business of Human Resource & Skill Development and is a facilitator under the National Employability Mission (NEEM Scheme) of the Government of India.
• The applicant acts as a facilitator to provide the trainees to obtain ‘on job practical experience’ in certain institutes to enhance their choices of employability and for which the applicant charges Rs. 1500/- per trainee per month on which the GST is levied and paid.
• Further, the trainer institutes pays monthly stipend to the trainees for the duration of their training. The trainer institutes pay the stipend amount to the Applicant who in turn disburses it to the trainees.

Issue:

• Whether the stipend amount which is received by the applicant from the various trainer institutes and remitting the same to the trainees forms a part of taxable value?

Order:

• The authorities observed that the applicant is only working as an intermediary in collecting the stipend from the training Institutes and then disbursing the same to the trainees in full without making any deductions and hence it does not attract GST and is not required to be added to the taxable values.
• The applicant is only a conduit for the payment of stipend and the actual service is supplied by the trainees to the Entities/Training Institutes against which stipend is payable. The amount of stipend received by the applicant from the Entities/Training Institutes and paid in full to the trainees is not taxable at the hands of the applicant
• In a similar case of M/s Yashaswi Academy for Skills, this Authority has held that "The reimbursement by Industry Partner to the applicant, of the stipend paid to the trainees, does not attract tax under the GST Act".
• In view of the same, the authorities held that the said stipend amount does not forms part of the taxable value.