Bouquets made with dry plant parts with foil packages would be exempted from GST, rules West Bengal’s Authority for Advance Ruling (WBAAR).
Kolkata based Shopinshop Franchise Pvt. Ltd is engaged in manufacturing and processing of dry parts of plants, foliage, flower buds, grasses and branches of plant which are dried, bleached, dyed and coloured for decorative and ornamental purposes and sold as bouquets made with dried parts of plants and packed in plastic foil packaging. It moved to AAR to seek advance ruling on whether supply of bouquets made with dried parts of plants and supplied in plastic foil packagingwill be exempt under GST.
After going through all the submissions, facts and arguments, AAR found that the applicant collects dried parts of various plants from plant growers/vendors, clean and sort the items, dye/colour the items as per specifications and parcel the items in plastic foil packaging in pieces/bunches/bouquet. In short, the raw materials undergo some sort of processing before a simple plastic foil packaging. The applicant submits that all the raw materials used in making bunches/ bouquet are plant products.
AAR observed that the applicant’s final product i.e., Bouquet, made with ‘Dried and/or Dyed’ flower buds will be classifiable as ‘Other’ under Tariff Item No. 06039000. It found that Heading 0604 deals with “Foliage, Branches and Other Parts of Plants, without Flowers or Flower Buds, and Grasses, Mosses and Lichens, Being Goods of a Kind Suitable for Bouquets or for Ornamental Purposes, Fresh, Dried, Dyed, Bleached, Impregnated or Otherwise Prepared”. Therefore, the bouquet made with dried and/or dyed parts of plants, foliage, grasses and branches of plant, will be classifiable as “Other” under Tariff Item No. 06049000.
Since, entire chapter 6, which deals with “Live trees and other plants; bulbs, roots and the like; cut flowers and ornamental foliage” is exempted from payment of tax, same will be applied for the bouquet in question.
Accordingly, AAR ruled “Bouquet made with dry parts of plants, foliage, flower buds, grasses and branches of plant which are dried, bleached, dyed and coloured for decorative and ornamental purposes and sold with plastic foil packaging will be classifiable under Tariff Item Nos. 06039000 or 06049900, and accordingly, its supply will be exempted.”