DTA Services Procurement Form (DSPF) Filing for Zero-Rated Services in SEZ

OVERVIEW


  • Section 26 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 provides exemption to SEZ units and developers from payment of duties and taxes on goods and services procured from the Domestic Tariff Area (“DTA”), provided such procurement is for authorised operations.
  • Further, Section 16 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“IGST Act”) treats supplies of goods or services to SEZ units or developers for authorised operations as zero-rated supplies.
  • Rule 30 of the Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006 (“SEZ Rules”) prescribes the requirement of obtaining endorsement for goods and services procured by an SEZ unit or developer.
  • In addition, Rule 89 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (“CGST Rules”)provides that refund claims for supplies to SEZ units/developers shall be filed by the supplier after due endorsement by the Specified Officer for authorised operations.
  • Earlier, the industry faced difficulties in obtaining service endorsements for SEZ procurements. To address this, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry introduced the SEZ Online system for electronic filing and processing of SEZ-related transactions.

DTA SERVICE PROCUREMENT FORM (DSPF) 


  • The DTA Services Procurement Form (DSPF) has been added to the SEZ Online System to ease the recording, review, and approval of all Service Invoices for Services obtained by SEZ Units / Developers from DTA Suppliers as Zero Rated Supply for Authorized Operations.
  • SEZ Online portal introduced the DSPF to facilitate endorsement of services received by SEZ units or developers from DTA suppliers.
  • DSPF is a module for recording and submitting invoice details for services procured from DTA as zero-rated supplies for authorised operations.
  • SEZ units, developers and co-developers can submit service invoices for DTA services availed during the previous month. Multiple invoices from different DTA vendors can be entered in a single transaction and submitted to the DC Office for review and approval.

DSPF FILING TIMELINE


  • The SEZ Act and the SEZ Rules do not prescribe any specific due date or mandatory frequency for submission of the DSPF by SEZ units.
  • However, as a practical compliance measure, SEZ units may submit the DSPF on a monthly basis through the Macro facility available on the SEZ Online portal.

APPROVAL OF DSPF


  • After submitting the DSPF on SEZ online portal, the Authorized Officer (AO) will review and approve it. The AO can support the form or refer it to a specific officer (SO) for evaluation and approval.

  • When the DC office accepts the transaction, an email will be issued to the entity approver. DTA Supplier will also receive an email. The DTA Supplier will receive an email confirming the endorsed service invoices and billing details.

DSPF FILING PROCEDURE

  • The SEZ Unit Maker logs in to SEZ Online, opens the DSPF, selects the reporting month and year, and saves the form to generate a unique Request ID. Multiple invoices produced by multiple/different DTA vendors over a month can be uploaded at once.

  • The Maker downloads the Excel Macro Template, which must be uploaded to the DSPF form and enters mandatory invoice details of DTA service suppliers, including invoice number, date, value, SAC code, supplier details, GSTIN and email ID.

  • The SEZ unit must specify whether the supply is under a Bond / Letter of Undertaking (LUT) or is subject to payment of IGST — this is a mandatory field called “Zero Rated Supply.”

  • If the supply is under Bond / LUT, the Bond/LUT Number and Date must be recorded mandatorily. If the supply is on payment of IGST, the IGST Rate must be entered and the IGST Amount will be auto-calculated by the system.The DOC Approved Service Description must be picked from the dropdown list of approved services.

  • The completed macro file is uploaded on the DSPF form, verified and submitted to the Entity Approver, who forwards it to the DC Office using a valid DSC.

  • The Authorized Officer or Specified Officer at the DC Office reviews and approves the DSPF through DSC.

  • After approval, the system sends email alerts to the Entity Approver and DTA Supplier, along with invoice-wise endorsement for Zero Rated Supply for Authorised Operations.

DSPF COMPLIANCE FOR DTA SERVICES PROCURED BY SEZ UNITS IN GIFT City 


  • GIFT City, India’s first International Financial Services Centre, hosts banks, financial institutions, fintech companies, fund managers, technology service providers and other SEZ-regulated entities that regularly procure professional, banking, fintech, software, data, analytics, advisory, facility management and other support services from DTA suppliers.

  • In GIFT City, SEZ units regularly procure services from large DTA service providers such as Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, Bloomberg and other technology, banking, consultancy, data and professional service providers for their authorised operations.

  • Since these services are received from the DTA and are treated as zero-rated supplies only when used for authorised operations, the SEZ unit is required to record and submit such invoices through the DSPF on the SEZ Online portal.

  • This digital process helps SEZ units maintain a proper compliance trail, support GST-related documentation and avoid practical difficulties in obtaining manual endorsements.

  • Therefore, for GIFT City entities dealing with multiple reputed service providers, DSPF acts as an important compliance mechanism for validating DTA service procurements used in authorised operations.

 

 
 
 

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