AAR held that amounts deposited by shippers into an escrow...

AAR held that amounts deposited by shippers into an escrow account operated by the applicant for onward remittance to carriers do not constitute "consideration" under Section 7 of the CGST Act, as the sums never accrue to the applicant and are held purely as deposits belonging to the transacting parties. The applicant's only taxable supply is its facilitation service as an intermediary, for which it receives subscription/commission, on which it is already discharging GST. Consequently, no GST is payable on the freight amounts handled through the escrow mechanism, which are outside the scope of supply in the applicant's hands.

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