Works Contract to Statutory Authority Not Eligible for Local Authority GST Concession

• GSTAT held that the Kerala Water Authority is a statutory/governmental authority, but not a “local authority” under Section 2(69) of the CGST Act.
• Merely being called a “local body” under a State law does not make an entity a “local authority” for GST purposes; only bodies expressly covered by Section 2(69) qualify.
• Works contract services supplied to KWA were therefore not eligible for the concessional GST rate for services to a local authority and were taxable at 18% GST from 1 January 2022.
• The Tribunal relied on Circular No. 245/02/2025-GST, which clarifies that statutory authorities, including development authorities, are not “local authorities” under GST.
• Interest was held payable only on the portion of tax discharged in cash; no interest was leviable on tax paid through ITC in the Electronic Credit Ledger.

Source: a2ztaxcorp.net

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

---

---