Wellness facilities provided by ‘naturopathy centre’ not exempted from GST, says Gujarat AAR

Wellness facilities provided by naturopathy centres are not exempted from Goods & Services Tax (GST), a ruling by Gujarat AAR (Authority for Advance Ruling) has said.

Under GST mechanism, when two or more goods/services are provided then they are called either ‘composite supply’ or ‘mixed supply’. Composite supply are those where goods or services or both are usually provided together in the normal course of business. While goods and service are treated as principal and the other as incidental. GST rate for principal will be applicable on the entire supply.

Mixed supply is applicable for bouquets of various goods or services. Highest rate among such goods or services will be the rate for the entire supply.

In this instance, wellness facilities by naturopathy centres are treated as composite supply.

The applicant Oswal Industries Limited operates Nimba Nature Cure Village near Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat. It claims to be one of the largest naturopathy centres in India and offers physical, psychological and spiritual health services. Such wellness facilities have qualified professionals’ doctors in the field of naturopathy, researchers, and support staff. The applicant said that it enjoyed service tax exemption in pre-GST regime and now wants to know will it be eligible to get the benefit of entry exemption dated June 28, 2017.

This entry exempts services by way of (a) healthcare services by a clinical establishment, an authorised medical practitioner or para-medics and (b) services provided by way of transportation of a patient in an ambulance, other than those specified in (a).

Three types of facilities

Perusing the website of the applicant, AAR observed that the three types of rooms — ‘amukha’, ‘sumukha’ and ‘pramukkha’ offered by the applicant are either on single occupancy basis or double occupancy basis and that the therapy offered is strictly on a residence basis.

It opined that the consideration is solely dependent on the type of room opted by the customer and the rates of the room per night have been specified, which forms the major part of the consideration towards the selected package (comprising accommodation, food & therapy).

According to AAR, the element of accommodation becomes the primary activity in the entire package and the packages offered by the applicant are naturally bundled and would be aptly covered under the definition of composite supply whereby the principal supply would be the accommodation services since the therapy can in no way be administered without accommodation.

Accordingly, it held that the applicant engaged in provision of different types of wellness facilities such as naturopathy, Ayurveda, yoga and meditation, physiotherapy and special therapy is not eligible to get the benefit of tax exemption based on the provision of law.