GST Exempted on Supply of Bouquets made with Dry Plant Parts with Foil Package: AAR

The West Bengal Authority for Advance Ruling (WBAAR) rules that Bouquets made with dry plant parts with foil packages would be exempted from GST.

Shopinshop Franchise Pvt. Ltd, based in Kolkata, manufactures and processes dry parts of plants, foliage, flower buds, grasses, and plant branches that 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.

The applicant has inquired whether GST would be applicable to the aforementioned supply. That is, whether bouquets made with dried plant parts, foliage, flower buds, grasses, and plant branches that are dried, bleached, dyed, and coloured for decorative and ornamental purposes and sold in plastic foil packaging would be considered a “Exempt supply” under GST as covered by HSN code 06049000.

The applicant also questioned whether Sl. No. 34 of Notification No. 02/2017-CT dated 28/06/2017 covers “Bouquets” made from dry parts of plants, foliage, flower buds, grasses, and plant branches that are dried, bleached, dyed, and coloured for decorative and ornamental purposes and are thus GST exempt.

AAR discovered that the applicant receives dried parts of various plants from plant growers/vendors, cleans and sorts the goods, dyes/colors the products according to requirements, and packages the items in plastic foil packaging in pieces/bunches/bouquet. In brief, the basic components are processed before being packaged in simple plastic foil. The applicant claims that all of the raw materials utilised in the production of bunches/bouquets are plant products.

The applicant’s final product, a Bouquet created of ‘Dried and/or Dyed’ flower buds, will be classified as ‘Other’ under Tariff Item No. 06039000, according to AAR. It determined that Heading 0604 deals with “Foliage, Branches and Other Parts of Plants, without Flowers or Flower Buds, and Grasses, Mosses and Lichens, Being Products of a Type Appropriate for Bouquets or for Decorative Purposes, Fresh, Dried, Dyed, Bleached, Impregnated or Otherwise Prepared”. As a result, the bouquet formed from dried and/or dyed plant parts, foliage, grasses, and plant branches will be classified as “Other” under Tariff Item No. 06049000.

Because the entire chapter 6, which deals with “live trees and other plants; bulbs, roots, and the like; cut flowers and ornamental foliage,” is tax-free, the same will be applied to the bouquet in question.

As a result, AAR ruled that “bouquets made with dry parts of plants, foliage, flower buds, grasses, and plant branches that 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 its supply will be exempted.”

For Offiical Judgement Download PDF Given Below: