Ministry of Finance 

03.08.2022

Goods and Services Tax

GST applicability on liquidated damages, compensation and penalty arising out of breach of contract or other provisions of law

MANU/GSCU/0016/2022

1. In certain cases/instances, questions have been raised regarding taxability of an activity or transaction as the supply of service of agreeing to the obligation to refrain from an act or to tolerate an act or a situation, or to do an act. Applicability of GST on payments in the nature of liquidated damage, compensation, penalty, cancellation charges, late payment surcharge etc. arising out of breach of contract or otherwise and scope of the entry at para 5(e) of Schedule II of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as, "CGST Act") in this context has been examined in the following paragraphs.

2. "Agreeing to the obligation to refrain from an act or to tolerate an act or a situation, or to do an act" has been specifically declared to be a supply of service in para 5(e) of Schedule II of CGST Act if the same constitutes a "supply" within the meaning of the Act. The said expression has following three limbs:-

a. Agreeing to the obligation to refrain from an act-

Example of activities that would be covered by this part of the expression would include non-compete agreements, where one party agrees not to compete with the other party in a product, service or geographical area against a consideration paid by the other party.

Another example of such activities would be a builder refraining from constructing more than a certain number of floors, even though permitted to do so by the municipal authorities, against a compensation paid by the neighbouring housing project, which wants to protect its sunlight, or an industrial unit refraining from manufacturing activity during certain hours against an agreed compensation paid by a neighbouring school, which wants to avoid noise during those hours.

b. Agreeing to the obligation to tolerate an act or a situation-

This would include activities such a shopkeeper allowing a hawker to operate from the common pavement in front of his shop against a monthly payment by the hawker, or an RWA tolerating the use of loud speakers for early morning prayers by a school located in the colony subject to the school paying an agreed sum to the RWA as compensation.

c. Agreeing to the obligation to do an act-

This would include the case where an industrial unit agrees to install equipment for zero emission/discharge at the behest of the RWA of a neighbouring residential complex against a consideration paid by such RWA, even though the emission/discharge from the industrial unit was within permissible limits and there was no legal obligation upon the individual unit to do so.

3. The description "agreeing to the obligation to refrain from an act or to tolerate an act or a situation, or to do an act" was intended to cover services such as described above. However, over the years doubts have persisted regarding various transactions being classified under the said description.

3.1. Some of the important examples of such cases are Service Tax/GST demands on-

i. Liquidated damages paid for breach of contract;

ii. Compensation given to previous allottees of coal blocks for cancellation of their licenses pursuant to Supreme Court Order;

iii. Cheque dishonour fine/penalty charged by a power distribution company from the customers;

iv. Penalty paid by a mining company to State Government for unaccounted stock of river bed material;

v. Bond amount recovered from an employee leaving the employment before the agreed period;

vi. Late payment charges collected by any service provider for late payment of bills;

vii. Fixed charges collected by a power generating company from State Electricity Boards (SEBs) or by SEBs/DISCOMs from individual customer for supply of electricity;

viii. Cancellation charges recovered by railways for cancellation of tickets, etc.

In some of these cases, tax authorities have initiated investigation and in some advance ruling authorities have upheld taxability.

4. In Service Tax law, 'Service' was defined as any activity carried out by a person for another for consideration. As discussed in service tax education guide, the concept 'activity for a consideration' involves an element of contractual relationship wherein the person doing an activity does so at the desire of the person for whom the activity is done in exchange for a consideration. An activity done without such a relationship i.e., without the express or implied contractual reciprocity of a consideration would not be an 'activity for consideration'. The element of contractual relationship, where one supplies goods or services at the desire or another, is an essential element of supply.

5. The description of the declared service in question, namely, agreeing to the obligation to refrain from an act or to tolerate an act or a situation, or to do an act in para 5(e) of Schedule II of CGST Act is strikingly similar to the definition of contract in the Contract Act, 1872. The Contract Act defines 'Contract' as a set of promises, forming consideration for each other. 'Promise' has been defined as willingness of the 'promisor' to do or to abstain from doing anything. 'Consideration' has been defined in the Contract Act as what the 'promisee' does or abstains from doing for the promises made to him.

6. This goes to show that the service of agreeing to the obligation to refrain from an act or to tolerate an act or a situation, or to do an act is nothing but a contractual agreement. A contract to do something or to abstain from doing something cannot be said to have taken place unless there are two parties, one of which expressly or impliedly agrees to do or abstain from doing something and the other agrees to pay consideration to the first party for doing or abstaining from such an act. There must be a necessary and sufficient nexus between the supply (i.e. agreement to do or to abstain from doing something) and the consideration.

6.1 A perusal of the entry at serial 5(e) of Schedule II would reveal that it comprises the aforementioned three different sets of activities viz. (a) the obligation to refrain from an act, (b) obligation to tolerate an act or a situation and (c) obligation to do an act. All the three activities must be under an "agreement" or a "contract" (whether express or implied) to fall within the ambit of the said entry. In other words, one of the parties to such agreement/contract (the first party) must be under a contractual obligation to either (a) refrain from an act, or (b) to tolerate an act or a situation or (c) to do an act. Further some "consideration" must flow in return from the other party to this contract/agreement (the second party) to the first party for such (a) refraining or (b) tolerating or (c) doing. Such contractual arrangement must be an independent arrangement in its own right. Such arrangement or agreement can take the form of an independent stand-alone contract or may form part of another contract. Thus, a person (the first person) can be said to be making a supply by way of refraining from doing something or tolerating some act or situation to another person (the second person) if the first person was under an obligation to do so and then performed accordingly.

Tags : GST Applicability Liquidated damages

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