GST Ruling On BPO- A Guide Map For Activities Which May Not Qualify As Exports

Background

Business process outsourcing (“BPO”) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a third-party service provider. BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing, which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing, which includes customer-related services such as contact center (customer care) services. The services may involve dealing with the clients customers. Such services are generally labor intensive and due to cost effectiveness of labour, India has been a popular destination for such services. The entire package of service provided by BPO units in India has long been categorized as "Business Support Service" and considered as exports.