Interviewtimes 
On Thursday the Union Finance Ministry said that “sarais” run by religious groups or charitable organizations are exempt from Goods and Services Tax (GST) regardless of rent.
Certain ‘sarais’ self-administered by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on their own started collecting GST for rents up to Rs 1,000 per day after the decisions on the recommendations of the 47th GST Council meeting came into effect from July 18, 2022. Hotel rooms with a room rate of up to Rs 1,000 per day were brought under the GST rate slab of 12 per cent from the earlier exempt category. However, GST does not apply to the rental of rooms in religious areas by charitable or religious groups, the Finance Ministry’s Central Board for Indirect Taxes said in a series of tweets.
It said there is another exception that exempts charitable or religious groups from renting rooms in religious areas if the room bill is less than 1,000 rupees per day, adding that this exception will remain unchanged. This exemption is available pursuant to the June 28, 2017 notice. “As mentioned in the notice above, religious site districts may be located outside the boundary walls of the religious site complex in the area, even if they are governed by equal trust/administration. This view has been consistently taken by the Center even in the pre-GST regime.
The three Sarais managed by his SGPC in Amritsar (Guru Gobind Singh NRI Niwas, Baba Deep Singh Niwas, Mata Bhag Kaur Niwas ) revealed that from 18 July 2022 have started paying GST.
