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"64. It is not necessary that a person should gi ve something for free or at a concessional rate to qualify as being established for a charitable purpose. If the object and purpose of the institution is charitable, the fact t hat the institution collects certain charges, does not alter the char acter of the institution.
67. The expressions tr ade, commerce and --business us occurring in the first proviso in section 2(15) of the Act must be rood in the context of the intent and purport of section 2(15) of the Act and cannot be interpreted to mean any activity which is carried on in an organized manner. The purpose and the dominant object for which an institution carries on its activities is material In determine whether the same is business or not. The purport of the first proviso to section 2(15) of the Act is not to exclude entities which are essentially for charitable purpose but are conducting some activities for a consideration or a fee. The object of introducing the first proviso is to exclude organizations which ar e carrying on regular business from the scope of charitable purpos e. The purpose of introducing the proviso to Section 2(15) of the Act can be understood from the Budget Speech of the Finance Minister while introducing the Finance Bill 2008. The relevant extract to the Speech is as under:
Charitable purpose includes relief of the poor, education, medical relief and any other object of general public utility. These activities are tax exempt, as they should be. However , some entities carrying on regular trade, commerce or business or pr oviding services in relation to any trade, commerce or business and earning incomes have sought to claim that their purposes would also fal l under charitable purpose. Obviously, this was not the intention of Parliament and, hence, I propose to amend the law to exclude the aforesaid cases. Genuine charitable organi zations will not in any way be affected.' The expressions business, trade or commerce as used in the first proviso must, thus, be interpreted restrictively and where the dominant object of an organisation is charitable any incidental activity for furtherance of the object would not fall within the expressions business, trade or commerce.
object of the activity, the purpose, though an object of gener al public utility would cease to be a charitable purpose. But where the predominant object of the activity is to any out the charitable/e purpose and not to earn profit, it would not lose its char acter of a charitable purpose merely because some profit arises from the activity.'
70. Although in that case the statutory provisions being considered by the Supreme Court were different and the utilisation of income earned is, now, not a relevant consideration in view of the express words of the first proviso to section 2(15) of the Act, nonetheless the test of dominant object of an entity would be relevant to determine whether the entity is carrying on business or not. In the present case, there is little doubt that the objects of the activities of the petitioner are entirely for charitable pur poses .

8. What thus emerges from the statutory provisions, as explained in the speech of Finance Mi nister and the CBDT Circular, is that the activity of a trust would be excluded from the term charitable purpose if it is engaged in any activity in the nature of trade, commerce or business or renders any service in relation to trade, commerce or business for a cess, fee and/or any other consideration. It is not aimed at excluding the genuine charitable trusts of general public utility but is aimed at excluding activities in the nature of trade, commerce or business which ar e masked as charitable purpose.