• Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dubai (‘DCCI’/ ‘Head Office’) is a non-profit organization in the UAE which has set up a liaison office in Maharashtra, India to represent, support and protect the interests of the Dubai business community in India
• DCCI Liaison Office (‘the Applicant’) acts within the norms set by Reserve Bank of India and is engaged in performing the following activities:

• Liaisoning between India office and Dubai office
• Attending and representing Head Office in various seminars/ conferences/ trade
• Connecting business in India with business partners in the UAE and vice versa
• Organizing events and interactions with Indian stakeholders for sharing information about Dubai

• All expenses of the Applicant (such as rent, salaries, etc.) are reimbursed on actual cost-to-cost basis by the Head Office. Any surplus remittances from the Head Office to the Applicant would be set off against subsequent expenses
• Primarily, the Applicant submitted following points before the AAR :

Activities undertaken by the Applicant are not in course of furtherance of business since the Applicant is a                      non-profit organization

Reimbursements on actual cost-to-cost basis does not qualify as a ‘consideration’

Surplus remittances are not profits but merely cash balance

1. Whether activities performed by the Applicant shall be treated as supply under GST law?
2. Whether Applicant is required to obtain GST registration?
3. Whether Applicant is liable to pay GST?

• The AAR held that the services provided by the Applicant to the Head Office in Dubai would fall within the scope of supply under Section 7 of the CGST Act, 2017 and thereby qualify as an ‘intermediary’ under the GST Law on account of the following key reasons :

Term ‘business’ involves trading in goods or provision of services or securities, therefore, by connecting                          businesses, the Applicant is actually arranging and facilitating supply of goods or provision of services or                        securities between two or more persons

The Applicant connects businesses in India with business partners in Dubai, which is nothing but supply of                    services. Accordingly, the Applicant acts as a conduit between some business partners in Dubai and certain                  businesses in India

The Applicant is not providing any service on its own account, rather is acting on behalf of its Head Office                       located in Dubai

• Place of Supply of intermediary service is location of the supplier of service i.e., Maharashtra, India in the instant case
• Also, the AAR held that Applicant’s Head Office is a profit making organisation since it charges fees for rendering specific services. Accordingly, the Applicant cannot be considered as a non-profit making organization
• Thus, the AAR concluded that the Applicant is liable to obtain GST registration and pay the GST liability at applicable rate.