Education ministry intervenes after IIT-Delhi gets Rs 120 crore GST notice: Report

Days after a GST notice was reportedly issued to the IIT-Delhi, the Ministry of Education has stepped in and is talking to the Ministry of Finance over the issue. According to an Economic Times report, the education ministry has approached the finance ministry after a Rs 120-crore GST notice was issued to IIT-Delhi over the research grants the institution received between 2017 and 2022.

An August 15 report by the Times of India stated that the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax has served a show-cause notice to the IIT-Delhi over Rs 120 crore GST along with penalties and interest. The educational institution has been given 30 days to submit its reply.

Meanwhile, the ET report said that the education ministry has ‘taken up’ the issue with the finance ministry. So far, no ministry or institution has issued an official statement regarding this.

Apart from the IIT, several other educational institutes were issued the GST notices last week, the TOI report said. Tamil Nadu’s Anna University has been asked to pay Rs 5.4 crore GST, the report said. Several other private and state-run colleges and universities have been sent GST notices by the authorities, the report added.

Previously, GST authorities had issued a Rs 32,403 crore notice to Infosys for services obtained from its overseas branches over a five-year period starting in 2017. Infosys, in a stock exchange filing, described the notice as a "pre-show cause" notice and expressed its belief that GST does not apply to these expenses.