Visiting wellness resort? Don’t expect GST relief

Mumbai: At the crack of dawn, you will invariably find guests at any naturopathy resort performing ‘pranayama’ (deep breathing) on lush lawns. Typically, additional yoga exercises, ayurvedic treatments, massages, et al, as prescribed by the resort’s medical practitioners, would fill up a guest’s daily schedule.

At the end of this idyllic stay, it is likely that the guest would be handed over a bill replete with a goods and service tax (GST) levy of, say 18%, depending on the room tariff.

In several cases, various benches of the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) have held that such wellness resorts that offer naturopathy services too do not fall within the classification of a GST-exempt clinical establishment. The reason: The wellness resorts provide a composite supply that attracts a GST levy.

Recently, the Appellate Authority for Advance Rulings (AAAR) in Uttarakhand state, in the case of Corbett Nature Reserve which housed a naturopathy centre, held that it cannot be treated as a clinical establishment. The appellate authority upheld the ruling given earlier by the AAR.