18 January 2020
The Sl. No. 13 of Notification No. 12/2017- Central Tax (Rate) dates 28.06.2017 exempts Charges on renting of precincts of a religious place meant for general public, owned or managed by an entity registered as a charitable or religious trust under section 12AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961, where the charges are less than ten thousand rupees per day. My query is whether the exemption is Service recipient basis or Service provider basis. That is is it exempt if the charge per customer per day basis or is it exempt only if the total charges in a day is less than Rs. 10,000. I have made brief interpretation of the provisions. Any one clarify on this matter: The key word “Charges” is used in the above notification. Whereas, in the S. No. 14 of the same notification, the words “Declared Tariff” is used in the notification to exempt room rent where the declared tariff of unit accommodation is below one thousand and not the actual “Charges” for room rent. That means it is the standard rent which is specified in Sl. No. 14 to exempt the service irrespective of the actual charges. But for Sl. No. 13, the GST is exempt if the actual charge for the one event of renting hall is less than Rs. 10,000 and it is not the standard rent. Hence if the charges for a particular Client is more than or equal to Rs. 10,000 then the GST is leviable and if the actual charge for a particular client for an event is less than Rs. 10,000, GST is exempt.
Further, if the charges per day for a particular client for an event is less than Rs. 10,000, the GST would be exempt. The key word “per day” is used to arrive at a taxability of renting of hall where it is rented for more than one day. Hence in such case, the proportionate rent per day shall be arrived at to verify whether so arrived rent is exceeding Rs. 10,000 and if so, the GST is leviable. If there are multiple events of renting hall in a particular day and if the charges for each such event is less than Rs. 10,000, the GST is exempt for all those events even if the total charges in that day is more than or equal to Rs. 10,000. This is because the total charges for each recipient of above service in a day does not exceed Rs. 10,000. From a reading of the above provisions in Sl. No. 13 and 14, it is interpreted that it is the charges levied to each specific customer for a particular function for a day. In case the charges levied on a customer does not exceed Rs. 10,000 on a particular day, then GST is not applicable. This is construed that even though the total hire charges for the hall for different events for different customers collected on a single day exceeds Rs. 10,000, GST is not applicable, this is due to the fact that the levy on a customer for an event is below RS. 10,000. This is on account of the fact that the GST is levied not on a fixed tariff for the hall, but instead on the charges levied which may vary from customer to customer and for event to event depending on the usage and the time. Please comment on the above.
19 January 2020
Yes even though the total hire charges for the hall for different events for different customers collected on a single day exceeds Rs. 10,000, GST is not applicable, this is due to the fact that the levy on a customer for an event is below RS. 10,000.
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