Greenwood Owners Association Vs Union of India (Madras High Court)
In the case of Dilip Kumar (supra), the Supreme Court reiterates the settled proposition that an Exemption Notification must be interpreted strictly. The plain words employed in Entry 77 being, ‘upto’ an amount of 7,500/- can thus only be interpreted to state that any contribution in excess of the same would be liable to tax.
The term ‘upto’ hardly needs to be defined and connotes an upper limit. It is interchangeable with the term ‘till’ and means that any amount till the ceiling of Rs.7,500/- would exempt for the purposes of GST.
As regards the argument concerning slab rate, a slab is a measure of determining tax liability. The prescription of a slab connotes that income upto that slab would stand outside the purview of tax on exigible to a lower rate of tax and income above that slab would be treated differently. The intendment of the exemption Entry in question is simply to exempt contributions till a certain specified limit. The clarification by the GST Department even as early as in 2017 has taken the correct view.
The discussion as above leaves me no doubt that the conclusion of the AAR as well as the Circular to the effect that any contribution above Rs.7,500/- would disentitle the RWA to exemption, is contrary to the express language of the Entry in question and both stand quashed. To clarify, it is only contributions to RWA in excess of Rs.7,500/- that would be taxable under GST Act.
FULL TEXT OF THE HIGH COURT ORDER /JUDGEMENT
All petitioners are Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) in apartment complexes, barring one individual, who is a resident in an apartment.
2. The petitioner in W.P.No.27100 of 2019 challenges an order of the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) levying tax on the entirety of the contribution by him to a RWA and the petitioners in W.P.Nos.5518 and 1555 of 2020 and 30004 of 2019 challenge Circular No.109/28/2019 dated 22.07.2019, also on the same issue.
3. We are concerned with the period post 01.07.2017 when the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (GST Act) was introduced. With the onset of GST, various services in respect of which GST was to be levied and collected came under the scanner. Exemptions were granted under Notification 12/17- CT dated 28.06.2017. The Circular to the extent to which it is relevant, is extracted below:
Exemption from CGST on specified intra-State services.
In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 11 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017), the Central Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, on the recommendations of the Council, hereby exempts the intra-State supply of services of description as specified in column (3) of the Table below from so much of the central tax leviable thereon under sub-section (1) of section 9 of the said Act, as is in excess of the said tax calculated at the rate as specified in the corresponding Entry in column (4) of the said Table, unless specified otherwise, subject to the relevant conditions as specified in the corresponding Entry in column (5) of the said Table namely,
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