What is the location of the supplier in case of banking and other financial services where multiple locations are involved in providing the services to a customer?
Banking services emanate from the bank account opened by a customer with the branch of a bank or through a contractual relationship between the branch of a bank and the customer. The branch holding the customer’s account is referred to as the ‘Account Branch’ or the ‘Home Branch’.
An account would include all types of accounts – viz. interest bearing, non- interest bearing, loan
account, deposit account, etc. In the present day of “anywhere banking”, the customer avails banking services through mobile/ internet banking or by visiting any branch of the bank. At times the services are provided through branches / locations other than the ‘Account Branch’ or the ‘Home Branch’.
It is clarified that the services provided by the other branches are actually services provided to the ‘Home branch’ and are ultimately billed to the home branch. Thus, the location of supplier in such cases is the Home Branch/Account Branch.
Q 52 of GST FAQs on Financial Services Sector published by CBIC