By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 28, 2018: THE Centre has finally notified the CGST and IGST refund under Ministry of Culture's scheme called 'Seva Bhoj Yojna'. Under this scheme, the Govt reimburses the CGST and IGST paid on the purchase of certain raw food items namely, ghee, edible oil, sugar/ burra/ jaggery, rice, atta/ maida/rava/flour and pulses used for distributing free food to general public/devotees by charitable/religious institutions like Gurudwaras, temples, Dharmik Ashrams, Mosques, Dargahs, Churches, Math & Monasteries.

The Scheme has been made operational with effect from the August 1, 2018. The applications for reimbursement of the said taxes shall be processed by a designated nodal central tax officer of each State or Union territory. The officers who have been designated as nodal officers for the purpose of facilitating the processing of refund applications for UIN entities as per Circular No. 36/10/2018-GST, dated 13th March, 2018 shall act as nodal officers for the purposes of this Scheme as well. The Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax (DGGST), 5thFloor, MTNL (Telephone Exchange) Building, 8, Bhikaji Kama Place, New Delhi-110066 shall be the central nodal agency for reporting and monitoring the reimbursement of the said taxes by the nodal officers under the Scheme.

Application for obtaining Seva Bhoj Yojana - Unique Identity Number (SBY- UIN)

The institutions opting to avail of the Scheme must first register with the Darpan Portal of NITI Aayog to obtain a Unique ID from the portal and thereafter, apply on the CSMS Portal on the Ministry of Culture's website www.indiaculture.nic.inin the prescribed format, and upload the requisite documents. The details are contained in paragraph 7 of the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Culture.

After enrolling with the Ministry of Culture, only the eligible institutions shall be provided with a unique enrolment number by the Ministry of Culture for filing claims for the reimbursement of the said taxes.

The claimant is then required to submit an application in FORMSBY-01 for obtaining a Seva Bhoj Yojana - Unique Identity Number (hereinafter called as the “SBY-UIN”), to the jurisdictional nodal officer of the State/Union Territory, in which the specified activity is undertaken. The claimant must indicate the details of all the locations/branches in a State/Union territory from where the specified activity is undertaken by them in FORM SBY-01. Since the reimbursement of the said taxes by the nodal officers shall be done State-wise or Union territory-wise, the claimant would be required to apply for a separate SBY-UIN for each State or Union territory in which they undertake the specified activity.

Upon receipt of the application in FORM SBY-01 and the information of allocation of a Unique Enrolment Number by the Ministry of Culture, a unique ten digit SBY- UIN, in the format of XX/YYYYY/ZZZ (where XX stands for the two digit State Code, YYYYY stands for the five digit Unique Enrolment Number allotted by the Ministry of Culture and ZZZ stands for the three digit running number assigned by the jurisdictional nodal officer) shall be communicated to the applicant in FORM SBY- 02 within seven days from the receipt of the complete application in FORM SBY-01 by the nodal officer.