Service Tax - Retro Exemption for Haj and Mansarovar
AS per Entry 5A of para 1 of Notification No. 25/2012-ST, dated 20.6.2012, Services by a specified organisation in respect of a religious pilgrimage facilitated by the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India, under bilateral arrangement, are exempted.
As per clause (zfa) of para 2 specified organisation is defined as:
(a) Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam Limited, a Government of Uttarakhand Undertaking; or
(b) 'Committee' or 'State Committee' as defined in section 2 of the Haj Committee Act, 2002 (35 of 2002).
The Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam and Haj Committee facilitate religious pilgrimage to Mansarovar and Haj respectively.
Thus, the services by Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam and Haj Committee are exempted. But this exemption was given only with effect from 20.08.2014 by Notification No. 17/2014-ST, dated 20.08.2014. Notification No. 25/2012-ST was effective from 01.07.2012 and Haj was exempted only from 20.08.2014. What about the period from 01.07.2012 to 19.08.2014? Were the services taxable? At least the Government thought so. The Haj Committee was of the opinion that it had an exemption all through, even without the exemption in 2014 as per Serial No.5(b) of the Notification No.25/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012. (conduct of any religious ceremony).
So, the position was that services by the Haj Committee are exempted from 20.08.2014, but were taxable during the period from 01.07.2012 to 19.08.2014.
Government has now retrospectively exempted the services during the above period by a Section 11C notification.
The CEO of the Haj Committee of India is Ataur Rahman, an IRS officer and author of one of the earliest books on Service Tax.
Please also see
1. Service Tax - Haj and Mansarovar get exemption in DDT 2421 22.08.2014
2. Service Tax - the Haj Exemption in DDT 242225.08.2014
3. Service Tax on Tour operator service in connection with Haj & Umrah pilgrimage
4. Tax payers money spent for Haj - Not unconstitutional
Notification No. , Dated May 17, 2016