AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (1) TMI 25
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....ST-ARA-41/201718/8-48 dated 14.06.2018 = 2018 (9) TMI 235 - AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING, MAHARASHTRA. BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE A. The Appellant is a public charitable and religious trust engaged in advancement of the teachings of Paramkrupaludev Shrimad Rajchandra and spreading the knowledge of Jain Religion entrusted by Shri Mahavir Swami and other Tirthankars. B. The main object of the Appellant trust is to spread the knowledge of the Jain Dharam and advancement of teachings of Paramkrupaludev Shrimad Rajchandra. c. The ancillary and incidental objects of the Appellant trust are to carry out activities for advancement of main object such as satsang, shibirs, etc. To spread knowledge of the Jain dharam through publications of books, audio CDS, DVDs, etc. and other materials for students and public in general and to set up organizations for helping people. The ancillary object also includes protecting birds and animals from being killed in slaughter houses, and other activities. D. The Appellant was registered under the erstwhile Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002 in view of the specific Explanation in the definition of "dealer" under Section 2(8) of the MVAT Act, 2002. E.....
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....cussed in the findings of the ARA. 2. The Appellant further submits that Advance Ruling Authority has discussed the exemptions under the GST laws which does not pertain subject matter of the questions raised by the appellant before the Ld. ARA. Thus Ld. ARA has discussed and answered on questions not raised by the Appellant in its Application. 3. The Appellant further submits that Ld. ARA in the impugned order has discussed on various exemption available to services and whether the same is taxable at the hands of the Appellant. The Appellant submits that the said discussion of the Ld. ARA is beyond the scope of the question raised by the Appellant in Advance Ruling Application. The Appellant states that no question was raised by the appellant on exemption of various services provided by the Appellant. Thus, the findings of the Ld. ARA on services provided by the Appellant is ex-facie erroneous and not binding on the Appellant. Thus, the Advance Ruling Order needs to be set aside on this ground alone. 4. The Appellant submits that Ld. Advance Ruling Authority has failed to appreciate the settled legal positions and ratio laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in a number of cases....
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....ot applicable in the facts of the present case. 11. Clause (a) provides that any trade, commerce, manufacture, profession, vocation, adventure, wager or any other similar activity, whether or not it is for a pecuniary benefit shall be included in the definition of business. 12. The Appellant submits that in the present case, the Appellant is a public charitable trust with the main object of advancement of religious and spiritual teachings and not engaged in any trade, commerce, manufacture, profession, vocation adventure, wager or any other similar activity. Further, the Appellant does not get any pecuniary benefit from various activities carried out by the Appellant under the main object of spreading religious and spiritual teachings. 13. It is settled law that where the public charitable trust carries out activity for advancement of its rnain object of charitable purpose, the same cannot be said to be business in commercial sense as defined in the taxing statute. There is no motive to earn profit out of the said activities and profit earned if any is spent on the advancement of the general public utility and hence, there cannot be said to be any business which is carried out b....
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....f the trust is charitable, then any other object which might not be charitable but which is incidental or ancillary to the dominant object will also be considered as charitable. 21. In view of the settled legal provision, the Appellant in the present case also cannot be considered as carrying on business even for the ancillary and incidental activity of selling the spiritual products. Since, the Appellant is not engaged in the carrying out business activity, the Appellant cannot be said to be making supplies liable for GST. 22. The Appellant submits that Section 7 of the CGST Act, 2017 defines the scope of supply which is liable for GST. The relevant portion of said Section 7 is extracted below for ready reference: 7. (1) For the purposes of this Act, the expression "supply" includes- (a) all forms of supply of goods or services or both such as sale, transfer, barter, exchange, licence, rental, lease or disposal made or agreed to be made for a consideration by a person in the course or furtherance of business; 23. From a plain reading of the above Clause (a) of Section 7(1) it is clear that supply will be liable to GST only when it is made for a consideration in the course or....
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....ct of the appellant's trust is to spread the knowledge of Jain Dharma and advancement of teaching of Param Krupalu Dev - Shrimad Rajchandra. After hearing the appellant and going through the objects of the trust, the ARA have held that the appellant which is a charitable trust is said to be in business and therefore their activity attracts the provisions of the CGST Act, 2017. It was further held by the ARA that the trust is liable to registration under the provisions of CGST Act. It is seen from the ARA and from the grounds of appeal that the main argument advanced by the appellant is that they are not carrying on the business in terms of section 2(17) of the CGST Act. The said definition is reproduced above in grounds of appeal. With reference to the above definition, the appellant has contended that it is a public charitable trust with the main object of advancement of religious and spiritual teaching and is not engaged in any trade, commerce, manufacture, profession, vocation, wager or in other similar activities. Also, it is put forth by the appellant that as the main object cannot be considered as business, the ancillary or incidental object also cannot be considered as bus....
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....r the purposes of this Act, the expression "supply" includes- (a) all forms of supply of goods or services or both such as sale, transfer, barter, exchange, licence, rental, lease or disposal made or agreed to be made for a consideration by a person in the course or furtherance of business; (b) the activities specified in Schedule l, made or agreed to be made without a consideration; and (c) the activities to be treated as supply of goods or supply of services as referred to in Schedule ll. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1),- (a) activities or transactions specified in Schedule Ill; or (b) such activities or transactions undertaken by the Central Government, a State Government or any local authority in which they are engaged as public authorities, as may be notified by the Government on the recommendations of the Council, shall be treated neither as a supply of goods nor a supply of services. (3) Subject to the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2), the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, specify, by notification, the transactions that are to be treated as- (a) a supply of goods and not as a supply of services; or (b) a su....
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....such services under Reverse Charge Mechanism. However, the exemption is not extended to OIDAR services received by charitable trust. There is also a specific exemption on services provided by charitable institution registered u/s.12AA of the IT Act, 1961, by way of advancement of religion, spirituality or yoga. Any fees or consideration charged from the participant for participating in religious program or Yoga meant for advancement of religion, spirituality or yoga is exempted. Further there is entry No.15 of Notification No.12/2017 dt.28.06.2017, where no GST is applicable on activities of public library including those run by charitable or religious trust. What can be seen from the above notifications is that specific exemption from GST is given to charitable institutions registered u/s.12AA of the IT Act, 1961. It can be gathered from the above that the intention of the legislature is to tax all the activities of supply goods and services by charitable trust except those specifically exempted. This is with the background that charitable institutions qua their activities of charity do not lend themselves to any specific concession or exemption from the definition of 'supply' or....