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2019 (7) TMI 1475

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..... stem and based upon the response from the potential subscribers, the Appellant initiates the subscription process of the Sabre System for the potential customers by placing a request for subscription in respect of the Sabre System, in the favor of potential subscribers in the website, called Subscriber Communication Management System (SCMS), maintained by Sabre APAC - it is very much clear that by carrying out all the activities as per the said Agreement, Appellant is arranging for the supply of services, which, in the instant case, is online information and database access and retrieval services (OIDAR Services) provided by Sabre APAC, by way of identifying the potential subscribers. The Appellant is facilitating the supply of the online information and database access and retrieval services (OIDAR Services), which is provided by Sabre APAC, their parent company to the potential subscribers, which are eventually identified by the Appellant as described and submitted above by the Appellant themselves, as the activities of installation of interfaces to the CRS Software, consultancy, assistance, provision of information services, etc., entrusted upon the Appellant by Sabre APAC, .....

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..... AHARASHTRA . BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE A. The Appellant is a private limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956. It is a direct and indirect subsidiary of Sabre Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sabre APAC ), a leading provider of travel solutions and services across the globe. B. Sabre GLBL Inc., an affiliate of Sabre APAC and Sabre India, has developed a global distribution system which uses a Computer Reservation System Software ( CRS Software ) which it owns and operates. The said CRS Software performs various functions including airline seat reservations, scheduling, booking for a variety of air, car and hotel services, automated ticketing and fare displays, etc. C. Sabre GLBL Inc., had granted to Sabre APAC - located in Abacus Plaza, 3 Tampines Central 1, #08-01, Singapore 529540, a non-exclusive right to market and promote the CRS Software for specified Asia Pacific jurisdictions. Sabre APAC has further been authorized to sub-license certain parts of its marketing rights and obligations to local-country distributors engaged in the marketing and promotion of CRS Software. D. Accordingly, the Appellant has obtained a .....

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..... If the subscriber meets all the criterion set forth by Sabre APAC for subscription, it is registered successfully and a Pseudo City Code is allotted in its favor. Once the Code is allotted and the setup is activated, the Appellant s engineers install user interfaces to access the CRS Software in the subscriber s computer systems. In this manner, once the organizational and work-flow analysis is complete, the Appellant undertakes reporting of the results in the SCMS owned by Sabre APAC. Consequently, the scouting of potential subscribers and the said organizational and work-flow analysis of such potential subscribers are the deliverables by the Appellant which is submitted in the SCMS system in the form of a non-binding request. Herein, the responsibility of the Appellant, stands completed on the identification of the potential subscribers to Sabre APAC. Subsequently, their responsibility of providing marketing support services (e.g. installation of interfaces to the CRS Software, consultancy, assistance, provision of information services, etc.) relating to the CRS System arises only upon Sabre APAC deciding to accept the potential customer based on the analysis provi .....

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..... Engaging distributors including partners and re-sellers Directly enters into contract with national marketing companies to undertake various services including marketing of the CRS software, support services, PR promotion, etc. The Appellant would provide information for purpose of identifying the potential customers to facilitate license of CRS Software within the territory of India and also provide marketing support once the subscribers registered successfully. Further, the Appellant would also help Sabre APAC in disseminating details of CRS Software through promotions, sponsorships, etc. 3. Right to market CRS Software within the Asia Pacific region Sabre APAC has been sublicensed the right to market and promote CRS software within the Asia Pacific region. It has also been sub-licensed its marketing rights to local-country distributor. The Appellant has been granted the non-exclusive right to market and promote CRS Software within the territory of India. Pursuant the same, the Appellant identifies potential customers, demonstrates offerings, etc. In context with the scop .....

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..... ials, participation in trade shows, sponsorship services, etc. 9. Advising on marketing strategies and local market conditions Formulation and adoption of strategies, based on inputs of the Appellant Advise Sabre APAC on any changes in market, organization, any political, financial, legislative, industrial or other events in within the prescribed territory of India. 10. Provide information on market trends, competitors, and new products and services in the Territory Decision making based on inputs received from the Appellant Advise Sabre APAC on any changes in market, organization, any political, financial, legislative, industrial or other events in within the prescribed territory of India. J. Further, Article 11 of the Agreement provides that there is no partnership or agency activity performed by the Appellant. The relevant Article is reproduced as below for ready reference: ARTICLE 11 No Partnership/Agency Nothing in this agreement is intended to or shall operate to create o partnership or jo .....

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..... DS OF APPEAL SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE APPELLANT WOULD NOT QUALIFY AS AN INTERMEDIARY SERVICE IN TERMS OF SECTION 2(13) OF IGST ACT, 1. Use of digital infrastructure cannot ipso facto mean that the activity is as a broker or agent and cannot be regarded as facilitating the service The Appellant submits that the impugned ruling passed by the learned authority is erroneous in as much as the contours of digital marketing is different from the conventional marketing or sales activity. The learned authority has failed to appreciate the fact that the marketing activities undertaken by the Appellant cannot be regarded as facilitating the service. In this regard the appellant wishes to explain the outline of digital marketing which is different from conventional marketing. The use of hardware and technology provided by the principal in this case Sabre APAC Singapore has to be used to register the prospects for the use of software. These prospects turn up after showing interest based on the sales promotion activity undertaken by the Appellants. The scheme of activity identified in box SL No: 5 and 6 under Para (l) above in the statement of facts clearly establishes the natur .....

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..... vance Ruling in Global Reach Education Services Pvt Ltd vide GST-ARA-15/2017-18/B-30 dtd. 08.05.2018 = 2018 (4) TMI 808 - AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING, WEST BENGAL wherein the question was as to whether the Appellant in that case was providing the recipient an intermediary service and making a taxable supply of service and liable to pay tax thereon. The learned Authority has held as below: Promotional service is incidental and ancillary to the above principal supply and the Appellant is paid consideration in the form of Commission, based on performance in recruiting students, as a percentage of the tuition fee collected from the students enrolled through the Appellant. The Appellant, therefore, represents the University in the territory of India and acts as its recruitment agent. In fact, Clause 2.1 of the Background forming part of the Agreement clearly says, The University engages the Education Agent to be its representative to perform the Services from the commencement date in the Territory and on the terms set out in this Agreement until the Expiry date. t is, therefore, clear that whatever services the Appellant provisions are provided only as a representative of the .....

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..... the form of monitoring of the voyage execution (c) undertaking various other administrative services like examination of lay time calculation and reconciliation of the voyage related accounts for eventual settlement with the vessel charterers; which are the essential requirements for receiving the payment from the FSO. This brokerage or commission amount is a fixed percentage of the gross amount received from the charterers as consideration for this vessel chartering services. (emphasis supplied) 7. In view of the above, the appellant submits that the tests laid down in above cited Rulings answers to the question as to whether the consideration is received by the Appellants as a function of sale or independent of the sale. The latter is the case in the present appeal because irrespective of whether the sale is made or any takings are generated the entire cost of operations of the Appellant will be reimbursed with the mark up. There is no obligation to generate any sale and this is the most distinguishing feature vis a vis the other two AARs mentioned above. Further, no amounts are collected from the potential customer and on the contrary as stated in Para 2.3 and 2.4 .....

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..... 34. The second principle is to understand the meaning of a document or a part of it from the document itself. 35. The third principle is to give literal meaning to the words used in a document. 36. The fourth principle is that in the event of the intrinsic incongruities and inconsistencies flowing from the words and language used in the document, the intention would prevail over the words used. 9. The expression by whatever name called employed in the definition of intermediary has to be construed ejusdem generis and must fall within the genus viz. broker, agent, or any other person as held by the Hon ble Supreme Court in CIT, Udaipur Rajasthan vs McDowell Co. Ltd. Civil Appeal No: 2939 of 2006 SC at Para 10. = 2009 (5) TMI 28 - SUPREME COURT 10. Therefore, the appellant submits that Article 11 of the agreement quoted at para I of the order is completely ignored by the Ruling of the learned Authority and this strikes at the very basis of saying that the arrangement is that of broker or agent. 11. No role in negotiating the terms of subscription. 11.1 The appellant submits that the ownership of the software cannot be the basis to decide .....

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..... directed at any particular customer prospect. The appellant further submits that Sabre APAC involves in promotional activity which is totally on case to case basis. Therefore, appellant submits that Sabre India reaching out to the customers or the customers approaching Sabre India on their own does not alter the situation because the role of Sabre India is to popularise the brand. As mentioned earlier, Sabre APAC directly rejects or accepts the subscribers application. Therefore, in view of the above it is clear that Sabre APAC has the sole discretion and the appellants do not have any role to play and this fact has been ignored by the learned authority in the impugned ruling. 13. The role of the appellants is to popularise the brand which induces the customers to show interest. 13.1 The learned authority in the order, at para 5 sub para 6, has stated as follows. Admittedly, the Appellant also undertakes sales promotion and marketing support activities to advance the business of Sabre APAC in India by way of giving marketing support services which includes activities such as PR, promotions, sponsorship, special events and trade shows, as well as any other services nec .....

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..... g where the marketer should be aware of the software and the equipment so that the customer is made aware of the product benefits to make an informed choice whether to go for the same or not. 15.2. To ascertain whether the services provided by the Appellant are covered under the definition of intermediary or not, it is pertinent to analyze the term intermediary in detail vis- -vis activities performed by the Appellant as per the agreement entered into with Sabre APAC. 15.3. Further, it is relevant to note that Section 2(13) of CGST Act which defines Intermediary intends for participation of three parties, namely the supplier of goods or services, the recipient of goods or services and a facilitator. The Section 2(13) evidences the establishment of a link between all the three parties which is absent in the facts of the present case. 15.4. An intermediary in terms of Section 2(13) of the IGST Act is extracted as below: intermediary means a broker, an agent or any other person, by whatever name called, who arranges or facilitates the supply of goods or services or both, or securities, between two or more persons, but does not include a person who supplies such good .....

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..... ker or agent . In other words, Agent or a Broker represent and act on behalf of another person i.e. the principal, and do not work at their own behest but as a representative or on behalf of their principal. Therefore, it can fairly be concluded that a principal - agency relationship between persons forms the core requirement of an agent or a broker. 15.10. Besides, the last phrase in the means clause of the definition of intermediary contains the clause or any other person, by whatever name called . The most appropriate rule of interpretation which is to be used while interpreting the phrase by whatever name called is the principle of Ejusdem Generis. The application of this Rule is necessitated because of the use of a general phrase preceded by specific words. Ejusdem generis is a rule of interpretation that where a class of things is followed by general wording that is not itself expansive, the general wording is usually restricted things of the same type as the listed items. 15.11. Thus, applying the interpretative rule of Ejusdem Generis, the phrase by whatever name called will include a person in the same genus as that of a broker or an agent. In other words, t .....

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..... on services in relation to potential customers and therefore Sabre APAC only undertakes the business analysis and decides as to whether allot the Pseudo City Code or not. Therefore, the code allocation is by APAC and thus the learned authority has erroneously disregarded the results of the sales promotion undertaken by the Appellants The customers come to the Appellants as a result and this is the purpose of advertising. 17.3. In view of the above, it is submitted that the impugned order affirming that nowhere the agreement provides that the customers can approach the appellants on their own, is erroneous in as much as the very purpose of sales promotion is to get customers interested. The services are provided to the general public and interested persons are then pursued. This is with the aim to make CRS software the reservation system of choice for the subscribers and to strengthen the subscribers trust in the brand so as to augment Sabre APACs business in India. The appellant further submits that the role of Sabre India is to popularise the brand as mentioned earlier, Sabre APAC directly rejects or accepts the subscribers application. 18. There can be no service on own a .....

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..... UTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULINGS wherein while deciding on whether the Appellant would qualify as an intermediary, the Hon ble Authority for Advance Ruling held that: 10. The definition of intermediary as envisaged under Rule 2(f) of POPS does not include a person who provides the main service on his own account. In the present case, Appellant is providing main service, i.e., business support services to WWD US and on his own account. Therefore, Appellant is not an intermediary and the service provided by him is not intermediary service. Further, during arguments, Appellant drew our attention to one of the illustration given under Paragraph 5.9.6 of the Education Guide, 2012 issued by C.B.E, C. Relevant portion is extracted as under; Similarly, persons such as call centers, who provide services to their clients by dealing with the customers of the client on the client s behalf, but actually provided these services on their own account , will not be categorized as intermediaries. Appellant relying on above paragraph submitted that call centers, by dealing with customers of their clients, on client s behalf, are providing service to their client on their own account .....

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..... customers of Sabre APAC and the customers or are in no way connected with the services supplied by the Appellant to Sabre APAC. Nor is Sabre India accountable in any way to the Subscribers for any deficiency in the service provided by the Sabre APAC directly to the Subscribers by way of on line data access and retrieval services. Hence, services supplied by the Appellant cannot be characterized as intermediary services. 18.9. The Impugned order is consequently flawed to the extent that it observes that the appellant is not providing services on their own and that the software belongs to the parent company and thus the appellant educates the subscriber about the software which they would not have known if the appellant was not present as an intermediary between them and the owner of CRS Software. This is contrary to the facts on record. 18.10. In summary, the services rendered by the Appellant in pursuance of the Marketing Agreement dated 31 October 2016, do not qualify as intermediary services for the following reasons: i) Services provided by the Appellant only involve standalone activities such as market survey, advising Sabre APAC on marketing strategies, conducting p .....

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..... e CRS Software and to build the Sabre System as defined in the said Agreement in India. The Appellant merely identifies potential clients and only on acceptance of the same by Sabre APAC does the Appellant provide any after-sale services as may be required under the Marketing Agreement. Moreover, considering the principal to principal nature of the said Agreement, the Appellant provides marketing, promotion and distribution services only to Sabre APAC and not to any other party. Thus, all the services provided by the Appellant accrues outside India to Sabre APAC. There is no remuneration, fee or any other consideration received by the Appellant from anyone in India including the Subscriber namely travel agents in connection with the marketing activities under the Agreement. 19.2. It is submitted that in the facts and circumstances of the present case, in the impugned findings that the supply of the Sabre India to Sabre APAC is intermediary in nature and thus is not on their own and hence concluding that the said intermediary services cannot be treated as export of services under the provisions of GST laws is completely erroneous and unsustainable. In view of the facts, the Appel .....

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..... Appellant submits that the findings of the Authority are based on fundamental misunderstandings of vital facts and fundamental mis-appreciation or misapplication of the relevant law and therefore the Impugned Order is bad in law, arbitrary, legally unsustainable, deserves to be set aside. In this context, the Hon ble Supreme Court in Micro Hotel P. Ltd vs Hotel Torrento Ltd., [(2012) 10 SCC 290] =2012 (10) TMI 295 - SUPREME COURT declared the law as follows: Wrong appreciation of facts leads to wrong reasoning and wrong conclusions and justice will be casualty. Deciding the disputes involves, according to Dias on Jurisprudence, knowing the facts, knowing the law applicable to those facts and knowing the just way of applying the law to them, If any of the above mentioned ingredient is not satisfied, one gets a wrong verdict. 19.7. Further the observation in the Impugned order is that the appellant being the supplier of service located in India and the recipient of Service i.e., the supplier of goods located outside India, application of Section 13(8) (b) of the said Act, as per which the place of intermediary services shall be the location of the supplier of service .....

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..... ) the supplier of service is located in India; (ii) the recipient of service is located outside India; (iii) the place of supply of service is outside India; (iv) the payment for such service has been received by the supplier of service in convertible foreign exchange; and (v) the supplier service and recipient of service are not merely establishments of a distinct person in accordance with Explanation 1 in Section 8 Herein, the term establishment of distinct persons has been explained in explanation 1 under Section 8 of the IGST Act which reads as follows: Explanation 1.- For the purposes of this Act, where a person has,- (i) an establishment in India and any other establishment outside India; (ii) an establishment in a State or Union territory and any other establishment outside that State or Union territory; or (iii) an establishment in a State or Union territory and any other establishment being a business vertical registered within that State or Union territory, then such establishments shall be treated as establishments of distinct persons. 19.10. Taking the above into consideration, it is relevant to examine the condition .....

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..... v) The supplier of service and the recipient of service are not merely establishments of a distinct person in accordance with Explanation 1 in Section 8 of the IGST Act: The Appellant is located in India and Sabre APAC is located outside India. Thus, the Appellant and Sabre APAC are distinct entities as per the terms of explanation 1 in Section 8 of the IGST Act. Moreover, they undertake operation in their own capacity on principal to principal basis and are not merely establishments of distinct persons. 19.11. The Appellant satisfies the conditions (i), (ii), (iv) and (v) prescribed above as the supplier of service i.e the Appellant is located in India, the recipient of service i.e., the Sabre APAC is located outside India, payment of supply of the Appellant s service is received in convertible foreign exchange and supplier of service and recipient of service are not merely the establishment of a distinct persons in accordance with Explanation 1 in Section 8 of the IGST Act. The appellant also satisfies condition (iii) above as the place of supply of Sabre India is outside India in terms of discussion as below: i. The services supplied by the Appellant will qualif .....

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..... reby rendering the impugned findings unsustainable and hence it becomes necessary to decide and adjudicate the palace of supply in terms of Section 13 of IGST Act so as to conclude that the supply of service by Appellant would qualify as an export of service. 19.13. Since, exports are considered to be zero rated supplies according to Section 16(1) of IGST Act qualification of supply of services by Appellant as export of service would have direct impact on the taxability of the supply of service. Non consideration of the submissions made relating to the activities performed and also the legal aspects thereto has caused grave hardship to the Appellant. 20. THE SERVICES RENDERED BY THE APPELLANT IS CLASSIFIABLE AS A COMPOSITE SUPPLY AS PER THE TERMS OF SECTION 2(30) OF THE CGST ACT: 20.1. It is submitted that under the Marketing Agreement dated 31 October 2016 with the Sabre APAC, the Appellant provides in an integrated manner, a bundle of services in relation to marketing and promotion of CRS Software within the territory of India which includes advertising, identification of potential business opportunities, demonstrating offerings, consultancy, promotion, sponsorship .....

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..... rovided by various Indian entities to their overseas customers as a single package. Besides, for the provision of the said services, the Appellant issues a single consolidated monthly invoice or. a costplus markup basis for the entire bundle of services, irrespective of the nature of actual supplies made during the said period. Consequently, the services of marketing, consultancy, promotion, sponsorships and other related support services provided under the Marketing Agreement are naturally bundled and supplied in conjunction with each and can be classified as a composite supply . 20.7. In light of the above detailed analysis and discussions, it is submitted that, the services provided by the Appellant are limited to marketing, promotion, distribution activities and other support activities. Personal Hearing 21. A personal Hearing in the matter was conducted on 28.03.2019, wherein Shri S. Thirumalai Advocate, representative of the Appellant, as well as Shree Durgesh Salwe, Asstt. Commissioner, appearing as jurisdictional officer, reiterated their written submissions. Discussion and Findings 22. Heard both the parties and have also gone through the facts .....

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..... vices necessary to perform its obligations under the Marketing Agreement. Such services are provided with the aim to make the CRS Software the reservation system of choice for subscribers and to strengthen the subscribers trust in the brand Sabre so as to augment Sabre APAC s business in India. 24. The Appellant, vide para F above, further submitted that they intend to undertake the following activities in relation to the marketing and promotional services, provided by them, under the Marketing Agreement dated 31 October 2016: Accordingly, while marketing access to the CRS Software, the sales team of the Appellant approaches potential subscribers in India to whom they explain the features of the CRS Software and the flexibility of same to integrate with the potential subscriber s system for smooth functioning; Thereafter, in the event of a positive response, the Appellant scans the credentials and the business potential of the subscriber to whom it proposes to market the CRS Software; Based on an organizational and workflow analysis of the subscriber and following a background check of their prior activities, the Appellant logs on a request into the system .....

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..... subscribers in the website, called Subscriber Communication Management System ( SCMS ), maintained by Sabre APAC. The Appellant, themselves, have submitted above that the scouting of potential subscribers and the said organizational and work-flow analysis of such potential subscribers are the deliverables by the Appellant which is submitted in the SCMS system in the form of a non-binding request. From the above, it is very much clear that by carrying out all the activities as per the said Agreement, Appellant is arranging for the supply of services, which, in the instant case, is online information and database access and retrieval services (OIDAR Services) provided by Sabre APAC, by way of identifying the potential subscribers. 26. It is further submitted by the Appellant that their responsibility of providing marketing support services (e.g. installation of interfaces to the CRS Software, consultancy, assistance, provision of information services, etc.) relating to the CRS System arises only upon Sabre APAC deciding to accept the potential customer based on the analysis provided by the Appellant. Thus, on perusal of this very submission of the Appellant, it is adequately .....

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..... Section 2(5) of the CGST Act, 2017 and is being reproduced herewith for ease of reference: (5) agent means a person, including a factor, broker, commission agent, arhatia, del credere agent, an auctioneer or any other mercantile agent, by whatever name called, who carries on the business of supply or receipt of goods or services or both on behalf of another; Thus, a person will be considered as an agent if he carries on the business of supply or receipt of goods or services or both on behalf of another. Now, by applying this proposition in the instant case, it is revealed that the Appellant is carrying on the business of supply of services, in this case OIDAR Services, which is actually provided by Sabre APAC, their parent company, by performing the activities of identification of potential subscribers and initiating the process of subscription with respect to the Sabre System i.e. CRS Software, by logging request on the Sabre APAC website and by providing the outcome of the organisational and work flow analysis as well as background check of their credentials and prior activities of the potential subscribers, on behalf of Sabre APAC, another person/entity. Thus, Sabre .....

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..... the service recipient i.e. subscriber of the Sabre System located in India. Thus, this contention made by the Appellant is clearly not tenable. 33. Further, the Appellant have contended that the relationship between the appellant and Sabre APAC is on principal to principal basis as laid out in the Article 11 of the said Agreement dated 31.10.2016. They have also cited the Ruling 01/WBAAAR/Appea1/2018 dated 24-07-2018 = 2018 (8) TMI 392 - APPELLATE AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING, WEST BENGAL and MAH/AAAR/SS-RJ/11/2018-19 Dated October 23, 2018 = 2018 (10) TMI 1517 - APPELLATE AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULING MAHARASHTRA to corroborate their argument. So far as the Ruling pronounced by the West Bengal AAAR is concerned, we are of the opinion that we are not bound by the observation by Hon ble Members of the W.B. AAAR. Further, as regards the Ruling pronounced by the Maharashtra AAAR, it is observed that facts of the present case are not congruent to the facts of the case involved in the cited AAAR Ruling and hence the said ruling is not applicable in the instant case. 34. As regards the Appellant contention that they do not facilitate or undertakes any such arrangement .....

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..... OURT , it is asserted that while interpreting the meaning of the intermediary provided in the Section 2(13) of the IGST Act, 2017, we have adopted the above mentioned interpretational rule of ejusdem generis only. And based upon the said construction of ejusdem generis, we have arrived on the conclusion that the activities of the Appellant are primarily in the nature of those of intermediary. 36. The expression by whatever name called employed in the definition of intermediary has to be construed ejusdem generis and must fall within the genus viz. broker, agent, or any other person as held by the Hon ble Supreme Court in CIT, Udaipur Rajasthan vs McDowell Co.Ltd Civil Appeal No: 2939 of 2006 = 2009 (5) TMI 28 - SUPREME COURT . 37. Appellant, in support of their claim of, not being intermediary, have also placed reliance on the Advance Ruling in case of In Re Godaddy India Web Services Pvt Ltd [2016 (46) STR 806 (AAR)] = 2016 (3) TMI 355 - AUTHORITY FOR ADVANCE RULINGS . As regards the above cited Advance Ruling, it is opined that the said ruling does not have any implication in the instant case as the facts of the present case is different from the facts of t .....

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..... ionship and hence, does not arrange or facilitate any supply of services to Sabre APAC, it is opined that as per the meaning of the intermediary envisaged in Section 2(13) of the IGST Act, 2017, there is no fixed mechanism of charging fee or consideration by the intermediary from the person to whom they provide intermediary services. Thus, this contention is devoid of any merit or rationale and accordingly is not considered. 41. As regards the Appellant s contention that the services rendered by Sabre India to Sabre APAC qualify for exclusion under the said acts as an export of service, it is stated that for deciding any supply of services as export of services, in terms of the provision of Section 2(6) of the IGST Act, 2017, which prescribes the conditions for qualification of any service to be an export of service, place of supply of service has to be determined. However, on perusal of the provisions related to the set of questions qualified to sought for the Advance Ruling as laid out in Section 97(2) of the CGST Act, 2017, it is seen that question regarding the determination of the supply of goods or services or both is not mentioned in the above said provision. Section 97 ( .....

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