Electricity Charge by Community Hall/Banquet Hall

[Asked by Guest]

A Community hall/Banquet Hall/Samaj Bhawan if collects actual electricity charges specifically by taking the meter reading along with some mark up from the person who takes it on rent and shows it separtely in the invoice as electricity charge. Is service tax to be paid on the same?

Will it be termed as sale of electricity?

AI Summary

Service tax treatment of separately billed electricity charges depends on whether they are genuine reimbursement or part of gross consideration.
Separate, actual electricity recoveries that are collected only as reimbursement and passed on to the electricity supplier need not be included in the taxable consideration; but where electricity charges are included in the bill or are marked up so as to form part of the gross amount charged for the service, the entire billed amount (including the electricity component) must be treated as the taxable value.