Levy of GST— The present appeal has been filed against the Advance Ruling order. The Appellant is a charitable trust registered under Maharashtra Public Charitable Trust Act, 1950.  The trust undertakes services to orphans and homeless children by way of providing shelter, education, guidance, clothing, food and health, on behalf of the Women & Child Development Ministry of Government of Maharashtra.

The trust also renders services under “One stop crises centre” scheme  introduced by Ministry of Women and Child Development to destitute women who are litigating divorce, or homeless, or the victims of domestic violence.

Under the “'One Stop Crises Centre” Scheme, the Appellant was selected as an implementation agency. 

Since the Appellant was not sure of the GST applicability of the “One Stop Crises Centre”, an application was made with the Authority of Advance Ruling for the GST, Maharashtra (MAAR) for the purpose to ensure if the aforementioned transactions are liable to GST or not.

The MAAR passed an order confirming the GST applicability on the impugned transactions.

On perusal of the case records and the impugned order passed by the MAAR, the moot issues before us are as under:-

(i) Whether the impugned activities undertaken by the Appellant as an implementing agency of the Government can be construed as services;

(ii) If yes, whether the same can be construed as supply in terms of section 7(1)(a) of the CGST Act, 2017;

(iii) Whether the impugned activities undertaken the Appellant can be construed as “charitable activities” in terms of the clause (r) of the definition section of the Notification No. 12/2017-C.T. (Rate) dated 28.06.2017:

In the present case, the Appellant are being granted a fixed amount of money from the Government of Maharashtra under the “One stop crises Centre Scheme” for taking overall care of the destitute women who are litigating divorce, or homeless, or the victims of domestic violence. The said activities undertaken by the Appellant are clearly for the welfare of these destitute women, and thereby, serving the mankind in general. Hence, we are of the opinion that the said amount of money reimbursed by the government to the Appellant is nothing but subsidy as the entire money is being spent in the activities which are advantageous to the public.

Since it has been established that the subject activities undertaken by the Appellant will not be construed as supply in terms of section7(1 )(a) of the CGST Act, 2017, we will not proceed to examine that whether the impugned activities undertaken the Appellant can be construed as “charitable activities” in terms of the clause (r) of the definition section of the Notification No. 12/2017-C.T. (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 as the determination of the same will have no bearing on the applicability of GST on the impugned transactions/activities.

Held that— This authority set aside the Ruling passed by the advance ruling authority holding that since the impugned activities undertaken by the Appellant are not construed as “supply” in terms of section 7(1 )(a) of the CGST Act, 2017, the reimbursement amount paid by the Maharashtra Government to the Appellant for undertaking the activities specified under “One stop Crises Centre Scheme” floated by the Central Government, will not be subject to the levy of GST.