What are 'religious place' 'general public' and 'Precincts'?
PARA 2(zb) of the notification defines "religious place" as a place which is primarily meant for conduct of prayers or worship pertaining to a religion, meditation, or spirituality;
Para 2(q) defines "general public" as a body of people at large sufficiently defined by some common quality of public or impersonal nature;
Now, what is the meaning of sufficiently defined? Who will sufficiently define it?
And what are precincts?
Since this term has not been defined in the notification, the Board makes a valiant effort to define it.
This seems to be a serious question. The CBEC answers it as:
Field formations may not take a restricted view of the word 'precincts' and consider all immovable property of the religious place located within the outer boundary walls of the complex (of buildings and facilities) in which the religious place is located, as being located in the precincts of the religious place. The immovable property located in the immediate vicinity and surrounding of the religious place and owned by the religious place or under the same management as the religious place, may be considered as being located in the precincts of the religious place and extended the benefit of exemption under Notification No. 25/2012-Service Tax, Sl. No. 5(a) dated 20.6.2012.
Board wants wide publicity to be given to this clarification so that the assessees and public are aware of this. All the major Industry and Trade Associations are also to be informed.
CBEC Circular No. 200/10/2016-Service Tax., Dated: September 06 2016