Taxability under GST — The present appeal has been filed under Section 100 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. By Rotary Club of Mumbai Nariman Point (herein after referred to as the “Appellant”) against the Advance Ruling No. GST-ARA-142/2018-19/B-88 dated 13.08.2019.

We have gone through the facts of the case, documents on record, and the entire oral and written submissions made by both the appellant as well as jurisdictional officer. We have also perused the ruling pronounced by the Advance Ruling Authority, wherein the AAR inter observed that the membership subscription and admission fees collected by the Appellant from its members is liable to GST as supply of services.

On perusal of the entire case records, the moot issue in the present case is whether the membership/subscription fees, admission fees collected by the Appellant from its members will be subject to GST or not. In other words, whether the transaction between the Appellant and its members can be construed as supply as envisaged under section 7 of the CGST Act, 2017, or otherwise.

In the instant case, it has been submitted by the Appellant that entire subscription/membership amount collected by the Appellant from its members is utilized solely towards expenditures incurred in the meetings, communication and other administrative expenses like printers, stationeries etc. They have categorically submitted that they do not provide any facility or benefit to any of its members against the said subscription or membership fee.

Thus, on perusal of the above submissions, it is observed that the Appellant is not providing any specific facility or benefits to its members against the membership subscription charged by it, as the entire subscription amount is spent towards meetings and administrative expenditures only. Thus, we conclude that the Appellant is not doing any business as envisaged under section 2(17) of the CGST Act, 2017. — Rotary Club of Mumbai Nariman Point, In Re… [2019] 19 TAXLOK.COM 119 (AAAR-Maharashtra)