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Seva Bhoj Yojana

Seva Bhoj Yojana

Seva Bhoj Yojana is a GST waiver scheme, recently launched by the Union Ministry of Culture in relief to the various charitable and religious organizations. In India, many charities and religious institutions like Churches, Mosques, Temples, Gurudwaras, and ashrams serve free food for feeding the needy or as a devotional offering for the devotees (Prasad).

Post GST regime, these organizations experienced the financial pressure to continue free food service. In the interest of lessening their financial burden, the Government has decided to reimburse the share of IGST and CGST on the purchase of raw food materials. The Government announced the financial outlay for the scheme to be ₹325 crore for the financial year.

Under this refund mechanism, the GST paid can be claimed for all or any of the following food items.

1. Rice
2. Edible oil
3. Ghee
4. Sugar / Burra / Jaggery
5. Atta / Maida / Rava /Flour
6. Pulses

Eligibility Criteria for Seva Bhoj Yojana

All institutions/organizations should fulfil the following criteria to be eligible for this scheme:

• A public trust, organization, or institution covered under the provisions of section 10 (23BBA) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (as amended from time to time) or registered under the provisions of section 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 are eligible for registration.
• The applicant body should involve both religious and charitable activities and should supply food free of cost without any discrimination.
• The institutions/organizations should have been in existence for preceding three years before applying for assistance.
• Only those institutions that have been distributing free food, langar, and prasad to the public for at-least past three years from the day of application are eligible.
• Institutions applying for this scheme should not be a recipient of any financial assistance from the Central/State Government to distribute free food
• The institutions should serve free food to at least 5000 people in a calendar month.
• The Institution/Organization blacklisted under the provisions of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) or the provisions of any Act/Rules of the Central/State Government is not be eligible for Financial Assistance under the Seva Bhoj Yojana.

Enrollment Procedure

Under Seva Bhoj Yojana, the Ministry of Culture will enrol eligible trust/body for the given time period i.e., till 31.12.2020 and subsequent review/renewal is subject to the performance of the institutions. The applicant should register with

Offline Procedure:

Step 1: The Ministry of the Culture issues a registration certificate after enrolment. The applicant should apply using the application form for Seva Bhoj Yojana. The copy of the application form is provided below.

ApplicationFormSevaBhojYojna-1

Step 2: The application form along with a copy of the registration certificate should be submitted to the nodal Central Tax Officer of the State/Union Territory. The documents to be furnished alongside.

Documents Required

The following documents must be submitted by the applicant for Seva Bhoj Yojana scheme:

1. Copy of the valid Registration Certificate
2. Copy of Memorandum of Association/Article of Association/Charter of Activities of the organization.
3. Copies of accounts audited for the last three years.
4. Copies of Annual Report, if any, for previous three years.
5. List of Office bearers/Governing Body of the institution.
6. Name of the authorized signatory who will sign all documents with contact details and e-mail id.
7. Self-certificate indicating that the institution is distributing free food for at-least past three years on the day of application and providing free food to at least 5000 people in a month.
8. Certificate from District Magistrate indicating that the institution is involved in charitable religious activities and is distributing free food to public/devotees etc. for last three years (on daily/monthly basis).
9. PAN/ TAN Number of the institution/ organization.
10. List of locations where free food is being distributed by the institution.
11. Number of persons being served free food by the Institution in previous year – self declaration.
12. Bank Authorization Letter as per prescribed format.

Bank authorization Letter Seva Bhoj Yojana

Step 3: The nodal Central Tax will generate a Unique Identity Number(UIN) with which the reimbursement can be claimed.

Online Application Procedure

The following steps can be followd for submitting online application:

Step 1: The organisation should first register with the Darpan portal and enrol itself in CSMS portal on the Ministry of Culture’s website. It can use the Unique Identity Number (UIN) generated by the Darpan Portal to apply online.

 

 

Step 2: The online application form should be filled after which the prescribed documents is required to be uploaded.

Note: Incomplete application or not providing essential documents will lead to the rejection of the application.

Reimbursement of GST

The GST refund sanction order will be done by the GST Authority and will be reimbursed on a quarterly basis after verification.

Note: The member of the executive body will be penalised if the grant or assistance is found to be misused.