Langar budget soars post GST

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 6

The langar seva budget at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur and Takht Sri Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda, has jumped by around Rs 10 crore in the past one year due to GST.

The SGPC has to bear an additional expenditure of over Rs 3.8 crore in running the community kitchen at the Golden Temple since July 1, 2017, the day GST was implemented in the country. The world’s largest community kitchen at the Golden Temple serves free food to more than 55,000-60,000 people daily on weekdays. This number increases significantly on weekends. 

Community kitchens across the state are bearing the GST burden despite the Central government’s relief under the ‘Seva Bhoj Yojna’. The Centre had announced the scheme on June 1, 2018. According to the scheme, the government would reimburse the Central components of GST paid by such community kitchens with a total outlay of Rs 325 crore for a limited period of two years — 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Under the scheme, the reimbursement of CGST and IGST would be applicable only on purchases of ‘specific items’ for distribution of free food. However, there is an ambiguity over specific items that would be reimbursed.

GST is being paid till date, SGPC Additional Secretary Diljit Singh Bedi said. “Though the Centre and state governments have announced to compensate the GST partly, officially there has been no communication as yet regarding the process to be adopted to seek the refund,” he said.

The SGPC’s three major community kitchens incur expenditure of around Rs 75 crore on serving free food every year.

Barring a quarter of materials offered by devotees, the rest are bought in bulk, for which the SGPC has designated teams. The open tendering process is adopted to procure major items from the suppliers. At present, non-perishable items are being purchased partly from Delhi, besides the suppliers located in Amritsar and around.