Important Definitions under IGST act 2017: At present inter-State supply of goods attract Central Sales Tax. Now, it provides that an inter-State supply of goods and/ or services will attract IGST (i.e. CGST plus SGST). Thus, it would be crucial to determine whether a transaction is an ‘intra-State’ or ‘Inter-State’ as taxes will be applicable accordingly..
Section 2 of the IGST Act, 2017 contains the definitions of various terms used at several places in the Act. Some of the important definitions are reproduced as follows:
a) “continuous journey” means a journey for which a single or more than one ticket or invoice is issued at the same time, either by a single supplier of service or through an agent acting on behalf of more than one supplier of service, and which involves no stopover between any of the legs of the journey for which one or more separate tickets or invoices are issued. Explanation––For the purposes of this clause, the term “stopover” means a place where a passenger can disembark either to transfer to another conveyance or break his journey for a certain period in order to resume it at a later point of time
b) “export of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means taking goods out of India to a place outside India
c) “export of services” means the supply of any service when,–
- (i) 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 of service and the recipient of service are not merely establishments of a distinct person in accordance with Explanation 1 in section 8
d) “fixed establishment” means a place (other than the registered place of business) which is characterised by a sufficient degree of permanence and suitable structure in terms of human and technical resources to supply services or to receive and use services for its own needs
e) ‘‘import of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means bringing goods into India from a place outside India
f) ‘‘import of services” means the supply of any service, where-
- (i) the supplier of service is located outside India;
- (ii) the recipient of service is located in India; and
- (iii) the place of supply of service is in India
g) location of the recipient of services” means,–
- a) where a supply is received at a place of business for which the registration has been obtained, the location of such place of business;
- b) where a supply is received at a place other than the place of business for which registration has been obtained (a fixed establishment elsewhere), the location of such fixed establishment;
- c) where a supply is received at more than one establishment, whether the place of business or fixed establishment, the location of the establishment most directly concerned with the receipt of the supply; and
- d) in absence of such places, the location of the usual place of residence of the recipient
h) “location of the supplier of services” means,–
- a) where a supply is made from a place of business for which the registration has been obtained, the location of such place of business;
- b) where a supply is made from a place other than the place of business for which registration has been obtained (a fixed establishment elsewhere), the location of such fixed establishment;
- c) where a supply is made from more than one establishment, whether the place of business or fixed establishment, the location of the establishment most directly concerned with the provision of the supply; and
- d) in absence of such places, the location of the usual place of residence of the supplier
i) “non-taxable online recipient” means any Government, local authority, governmental authority, an individual or any other person not registered and receiving online information and database access or retrieval services in relation to any purpose other than commerce, industry or any other business or profession, located in taxable territory.
Explanation. – For the purposes of this clause, the expression “governmental authority” means an authority or a board or any other body,–
- (i) set up by an Act of Parliament or a State Legislature; or
- (ii) established by any Government, with ninety per cent. or more participation by way of equity or control, to carry out any function entrusted to a municipality under article 243W of the Constitution
j) “online information and database access or retrieval services” means services whose delivery is mediated by information technology over the internet or an electronic network and the nature of which renders their supply essentially automated and involving minimal human intervention and impossible to ensure in the absence of information technology and includes electronic services such as,-
- (i) advertising on the internet;
- (ii) providing cloud services;
- (iii) provision of e-books, movie, music, software and other intangibles through telecommunication networks or internet;
- (iv) providing data or information, retrievable or otherwise, to any person in electronic form through a computer network;
- (v) online supplies of digital content (movies, television shows, music and the like);
- (vi) digital data storage; and
- (vii) online gaming
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