Section-2
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(1) “actionable
claim” shall have the meaning assigned to
it in section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (4 of 1882);
(2) “address
of delivery” means the address of the recipient of
goods and/or services indicated on the tax invoice issued by a taxable person
for delivery of such goods and/or services;
(3) “address
on record” means the address of the recipient
as available in the records of the supplier;
(4) “adjudicating
authority” means any authority competent to
pass any order or decision under this Act, but does not include the Board, the
Revisional Authority, Authority for Advance Ruling, Appellate Authority for
Advance Ruling, the First Appellate Authority and the Appellate Tribunal;
(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 on behalf of another, whether disclosed
or not;
(6) “aggregate
turnover” means the aggregate value of all
taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports of goods and/or services and
inter-State supplies of a person having the same PAN, to be computed on all
India basis and excludes taxes, if any, charged under the CGST Act, SGST Act
and the IGST Act, as the case may be;
Explanation.-
Aggregate turnover does not include the value of inward supplies on which tax
is payable by a person on reverse charge basis under sub-section (3) of Section
8 and the value of inward supplies.
(7) “agriculture" with all its grammatical variations and cognate
expressions, includes floriculture, horticulture, sericulture, the raising of
crops, grass or garden produce and also grazing, but does not include dairy
farming, poultry farming, stock breeding, the mere cutting of wood or grass,
gathering of fruit, raising of man-made forest or rearing of seedlings or
plants;
Explanation.–
For the purpose of this clause, the expression ‘forest’ means the forest to which
the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (XVI of 1927) applies.
(8) “agriculturist” means a person who cultivates land personally, for the
purpose of agriculture;
(9) "Appellate Tribunal"
means the National Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal constituted under
section 100;
(10) “appointed
day’’ means the date on which section 1
of this Act comes
into effect;
(11) “appropriate
Government” means the Central Government in
case of the IGST and the CGST, and the State Government in case of
the SGST;
(12) “assessment” means determination of tax liability under this Act and
includes self-assessment, re-assessment, provisional
assessment, summary
assessment and best judgement assessment;
(13) "associated enterprise"
shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 92A of the Income Tax Act,
1961(43 of 1961);
(14) “audit” means examination of records, returns and other documents
maintained or furnished by the taxable person under this
Act or rules made
thereunder or under any other law for the time being in
force to verify, inter alia, the correctness of turnover declared, taxes paid,
refund claimed and input tax credit availed, and to assess his compliance with
the provisions of this Act or rules made thereunder;
(15) “authorized
bank” shall mean a bank or a branch of a
bank authorised
by the appropriate Government to collect the tax or any
other amount payable to the appropriate government under this Act;
(16) “Board” means the Central Board of Excise and Customs
constituted
under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963 (54 of
1963);
(17) “business” includes –
(a) any trade, commerce, manufacture, profession,
vocation, adventure, wager or any other similar activity, whether or not it is
for a pecuniary benefit;
(b) any activity or transaction in connection with or
incidental or ancillary to (a) above;
(c) any activity or transaction in the nature of (a)
above, whether or not there is volume, frequency, continuity or regularity of
such transaction;
(d) supply or acquisition of goods including capital
assets and services in
connection with commencement or closure of business;
(e) provision by a club, association, society, or any such
body (for a subscription or any other consideration) of the facilities or
benefits to its members, as the case may be;
(f) admission, for a consideration, of persons to
any premises; and
(g) services supplied by a person as the holder of an
office which has been accepted by him in the course or furtherance of his
trade, profession or vocation;
(h) services provided by a race club by way of totalisator
or a licence to book maker in such club;
Explanation.-
Any activity or transaction undertaken by the Central Government, a State Government
or any local authority in which they are engaged as public authorities shall be
deemed to be business.
(18) “business
vertical” means a distinguishable component of
an enterprise that is engaged in supplying an individual product or service or
a group of related products or services and that is subject to risks and
returns that are different from those of other business verticals;
Explanation:
Factors that should be considered in determining whether products or services
are related include:
(a) the nature of the products or services;
(b) the nature of the production processes;
(c) the type or class of customers for the products or
services;
(d) the methods used to distribute the products or provide
the services; and
(e) if applicable, the nature of the regulatory
environment, for example, banking, insurance, or public utilities.
(19) “capital
goods” means goods, the value of which is
capitalised in the books of accounts of the person claiming the credit and
which are used or
intended to be used in the course or furtherance of
business;
(20) “casual
taxable person” means a person who occasionally
undertakes transactions involving supply of goods and/or services in
the course or furtherance of business whether as principal, agent or in
any other capacity, in a taxable territory where he has no fixed place of
business;
(21) “CGST” means the tax levied under the Central Goods and
Services Tax Act, 2016;
(22) “chartered
accountant” means a chartered accountant within
the meaning of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (38 of 1949);
(23) “commissioner” means the Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax
/ Commissioner of State Goods and Services Tax and includes Principal Commissioner
of Central Goods and Services Tax / Principal Commissioner of State Goods and
Services Tax / Chief Commissioner of State Goods and Services Tax appointed
under section 4 of the Central/State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2016;
(24) “common
portal” means the common GST electronic
portal approved by the Central Government and State Governments, on the
recommendation of the Council, for the specified purposes, as may be notified
under this Act;
(25) “common
working days” in respect of a State shall mean
such days in succession which are not declared as a gazetted holiday by the
Central
Government or the concerned State Government;
(26) "company
secretary" means a company secretary within the
meaning of the Company Secretaries Act, 1980 (56 of 1980);
(27) “composite supply” means a supply made by a taxable person to a
recipient comprising two or more supplies of goods or
services, or any
combination thereof, which are naturally bundled and
supplied in conjunction
with each other in the ordinary course of business, one of
which is a principal supply;
Illustration : Where goods are packed and
transported with insurance, the supply of goods, packing materials, transport
and insurance is a composite supply and supply of goods is the principal
supply.
(28) “consideration” in relation to the supply of goods or services includes
(a) any payment made or to be made, whether in money or
otherwise, in respect of, in response to, or for the inducement of, the supply
of goods or services, whether by the recipient or by any other person but shall
not include any subsidy given by the Central Government or a State Government;
(b) the monetary value of any act or forbearance, whether
or not voluntary, in respect of, in response to, or for the inducement of, the
supply of goods or services, whether by the recipient or by any other person
but shall not include any subsidy given by the Central Government or a State Government:
PROVIDED that a deposit, whether refundable or not, given
in respect of the supply of goods or services shall not be considered as
payment made for the supply unless the supplier applies the deposit as
consideration for the supply;
(29) “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, ‘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.
(30) “continuous
supply of goods” means a supply of goods which is
provided, or agreed to be provided, continuously or on
recurrent basis, under a contract, whether or not by means of a wire, cable,
pipeline or other conduit, and for which the supplier invoices the recipient on
a regular or periodic basis;
(31) “continuous
supply of services” means a supply of services which is
provided, or agreed to be provided, continuously or on
recurrent basis, under a contract, for a period exceeding three months with
periodic payment obligations and includes supply of such service as the Central
or a State Government may, whether or not subject to any condition, by
notification, specify;
(32) “conveyance” includes a vessel, an aircraft and a vehicle;
(33) “cost
accountant” means a cost accountant within the
meaning of the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959 (23 of 1959);
(34) “Council” means the Goods and Services Tax Council established
under Article 279A of the Constitution;
(35) “credit
note” means a document issued by a taxable
person as referred to in sub-section (1) of section 31;
(36) “debit note” means
a document issued by a taxable person as referred to in sub-section (3) of
section 31;
(37) “deemed
exports”, as notified by the Central
Government/State
Government on the recommendation of the Council, refer to
those transactions in which the goods supplied do not leave India, and payment
for such supplies is received either in Indian Rupees or in convertible foreign
exchange;
(38) “document” includes written or printed record of any sort and
electronic record as defined in the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of
2000);
(39) “earlier
law” means any of the following laws,
that is to say,
(a) . . .
(b) . . .
(Nothing Mentioned in Model GST Law)
(c) . . .
As amended from time to time and includes enactments which
have validated anything done or omitted to be done under any of the above
mentioned laws and also any law repealed by the earlier laws but continued in
force under any provisions of the above enumerated laws;
(40) “electronic
cash ledger” means the electronic cash ledger
referred to in sub-section (1) of section 44;
(41) ‘electronic
commerce’ means supply of goods and/or
services including digital products over digital or electronic network;
(42) ‘electronic
commerce operator’ means any person who owns, operates
or manages digital or electronic facility or platform for electronic commerce;
(43) “electronic
credit ledger” means the electronic credit ledger
referred to in sub-section (2) of section 44;
(44) “exempt
supply” means supply of any goods and/or
services which are not taxable under this Act and includes such supply of goods
and/or services which attract nil rate of tax or which may be exempt from tax
under section 11 ;
(45) “First
Appellate Authority” means an authority referred to in
section
98;
(46) “first
stage dealer” means a dealer, who purchases the
goods directly from,-
(i) the manufacturer under the cover of an invoice issued
in terms of the provisions of Central Excise Rules, 2002 or from the depot of
the said manufacturer, or from premises of the consignment agent of the said manufacturer
or from where the goods are sold by or on behalf of the said manufacturer,
under cover of an invoice; or
(ii) an importer or from the depot of an importer or from
the premises of the consignment agent of the importer, under cover of an
invoice;
(47) “fixed
establishment” means a place, other than the 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;
(48) “fund” means the Consumer Welfare Fund established under
section 51;
(49) “goods’’ means every kind of movable property other than money
and
securities but includes actionable claim, growing
crops, grass and things attached to or forming part of the land which are
agreed to be severed before supply or under a contract of supply;
(50) “government” means Central Government and its departments, a State Government
and its departments and a Union territory and its departments, but shall not
include any entity, whether created by a statute or otherwise, the accounts of
which are not required to be kept in accordance with Article 150 of the
Constitution or the rules made thereunder;
(51) “IGST” means the tax levied under the Integrated Goods and
Services
Tax Act, 2016;
(52) “input” means any goods other than capital goods used or
intended to be used by a supplier in the course or furtherance of business;
(53) “input
service” means any service used or intended
to be used by a
supplier in the course or furtherance of business;
(54) "Input Service Distributor"
means an office of the supplier of goods and / or services which receives tax
invoices issued under section 28 towards receipt of input services and issues a
prescribed document for the purposes of distributing the credit of CGST (SGST
in State Acts) and / or IGST paid on the said services to a supplier of taxable
goods and / or services having same PAN as that of the office referred to
above;
(55) "input tax" in
relation to a taxable person, means the IGST, including that on import of
goods, CGST and SGST charged on any supply of goods or services to him and
includes the tax payable under
sub-section (3) of section 8, but does not include the tax paid under section
9;
(56) “input tax
credit” means credit of ‘input tax’ as
defined in sub-section (55);
(57) “intra-State
supply of goods” means the supply of goods in the course
of intra-State trade or commerce in terms of sub-section (1) of section 4 of
IGST Act, 2016;
(58) “intra-State
supply of services ” means the supply of services in the course of intra-State trade or commerce in terms of
sub-section (2) of section 4 of IGST Act, 2016;
(59) “invoice”
shall have the meaning as assigned to
it under section 28;
(60) “inward
supply” in relation to a person, shall mean
receipt of goods
and/or services whether by purchase, acquisition or any
other means and
whether or not for any consideration;
(61) “job work” means undertaking any treatment or process by a person
on goods belonging to another registered taxable person and the expression “job
worker” shall be construed accordingly;
(62) “local
authority” means
(a) a “Panchayat” as defined in clause (d) of Article 243
of the Constitution;
(b) a “Municipality” as defined in clause (e) of Article
243P of the Constitution;
(c) a Municipal Committee, a Zilla Parishad, a District
Board, and any other
authority legally entitled to, or entrusted by the Central
or any State
Government with the control or management of a municipal
or local fund;
(d) a Cantonment Board as defined in section 3 of the Cantonments
Act, 2006 (41 of 2006);
(e) a Regional Council or a District Council constituted
under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution;
(f) a Development Board constituted under Article 371 of
the Constitution; or
(g) a Regional Council constituted under Article 371A of
the Constitution;
(63) “manufacturer”
shall have the meaning assigned to it
by the
Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944);
(64) “market
value” shall mean the full amount which a
recipient of a supply is required to pay in order to obtain the goods and/or
services of like kind and quality at or about the same time and at the same
commercial level where the recipient and the supplier are not related;
(65) “money” means Indian legal tender or any foreign currency,
cheque,
promissory note, bill of exchange, letter of credit,
draft, pay order, traveller
cheque, money order, postal or electronic remittance or
any other instrument recognized by the Reserve Bank of India when used as
consideration to settle an obligation or exchange with Indian legal tender of
another denomination but shall not include any currency that is held for its
numismatic value;
(66) “mixed
supply” means two or more individual
supplies of goods or services, or any combination thereof, made in conjunction
with each other by a taxable person for a single price where such supply does
not constitute a composite supply;
Illustration: A supply of a package consisting of canned
foods, sweets, chocolates, cakes, dry fruits, aerated drink and fruit juices
when supplied for a single price is a mixed supply. Each of these items can be
supplied separately and is not dependent on any other. It shall not be a mixed
supply if these items are supplied separately.
(67) "motor vehicle" has the
meaning assigned to it in clause (28) of section 2 of the Motor Vehicles Act,
1988 (59 of 1988);
(68) “non-resident
taxable person” means a taxable person who occasionally undertakes transactions involving supply of
goods and/or services whether as principal or agent or in any other capacity but
who has no fixed place of business in India;
(69) “non-taxable
territory” means the territory which is outside
the taxable territory;
(70) “notification” means notification published in the Official Gazette and
the expressions ‘notify’ and ‘notified’ shall be construed accordingly;
(71) ”output
tax” in relation to a taxable person,
means the CGST/SGST
chargeable under this Act on taxable supply of goods
and/or services made by him or by his agent and excludes tax payable by him on
reverse charge basis;
(72) “outward
supply” in relation to a person, shall mean
supply of goods or services, whether by sale, transfer, barter, exchange,
licence, rental, lease or disposal or any other means made or agreed to be made
by such person in the course or furtherance of business;
(73) “person” includes—
(a) an individual;
(b) a Hindu undivided family;
(c) a company;
(d) a firm;
(e) a Limited Liability Partnership;
(f) an association of persons or a body of individuals,
whether incorporated or not, in India or outside India;
(g) any corporation established by or under any Central,
State or Provincial Act or a Government company as defined in section 2(45) of
the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013);
(h) any body corporate incorporated by or under the laws
of a country outside India;
(i) a co-operative society registered under any law
relating to cooperative societies;
(j) a local authority;
(k) government;
(l) society as defined under the Societies Registration
Act, 1860 (21 of 1860);
(m) trust; and
(n) every artificial juridical person, not falling within
any of the preceding sub-clauses;
(74) “place of
business” includes
(a) a place from where the business is ordinarily carried
on, and includes a
warehouse, a godown or any other place where a taxable
person stores his
goods, provides or receives goods and/or services; or
(b) a place where a taxable person maintains his books of
account; or
(c) a place where a taxable person is engaged in business
through an agent, by whatever name
called;
(75) “prescribed’’ means prescribed by the rules, regulations or by any
notification issued under this Act;
(76) “principal”
means a person on whose behalf an
agent carries on the
business of supply or receipt of goods and/or services;
(77) “principal
place of business” means the place of business
specified as the principal place of business in the certificate of registration
;
(78) “principal
supply” means the supply of goods or
services which constitutes the predominant element of a composite supply
and to which any other supply forming part of that composite supply is
ancillary and does not constitute, for the recipient an aim in itself, but a
means for better enjoyment of the principal supply;
(79) “proper
officer” in relation to any function to be
performed under his Act, means the officer of goods and services tax who is
assigned that function by the Commissioner of CGST / SGST;
(80) “quarter” shall mean a period comprising three consecutive calendar
months, ending on the last day of March, June, September
and December of a calendar year;
(81) “recipient” of supply of goods and/or services means-
(a) where a consideration is payable for the supply of
goods and/or services, the person who is liable to pay that consideration,
(b) where no consideration is payable for the supply of
goods, the person to whom the goods are delivered or made available, or to whom
possession or use of the goods is given or made available, and
(c) where no consideration is payable for the supply of a
service, the person to whom the service is rendered, and any reference to a
person to whom a supply is made shall be construed as a reference to the
recipient of the supply;
Explanation.-
The expression “recipient” shall also include an agent acting as such on behalf
of the recipient in relation to the goods and/or services supplied.
(82) “registered
importer” means the importer registered in
terms of the
provisions of Central Excise Rules, 2002;
(83) “regulations” means the regulations made by the Commissioner under any provision of the Act on the recommendation of the
Council;
(84) persons shall be deemed to be “related persons’’ if only –
(a) they are officers or directors of one another's
businesses;
(b) they are legally recognized partners in business;
(c) they are employer and employee;
(d) any person directly or indirectly owns, controls or
holds twenty five per cent or more of the outstanding voting stock or shares of
both of them;
(e) one of them directly or indirectly controls the other;
(f) both of them are directly or indirectly controlled by
a third person;
(g) together they directly or indirectly control a third
person; or
(h) they are members of the same family;
Explanation I.
- The term "person" also includes legal persons.
Explanation II.
- Persons who are associated in the business of one another in that one is the
sole agent or sole distributor or sole concessionaire, howsoever described, of
the other, shall be deemed to be related.
(85) “removal’’, in relation to goods, means -
(a) despatch of the goods for delivery by the supplier
thereof or by any other person acting on behalf of such supplier, or
(b) collection of
the goods by the recipient thereof or by any other person acting on behalf of
such recipient;
(86) “return” means any return prescribed or otherwise required to be
furnished by or under this Act or rules made thereunder;
(87) “reverse
charge’’ means the liability to pay tax by
the recipient of supply of goods or services instead of the supplier of such
goods or services in respect of such categories of supplies as notified under
sub-section (3) of section 8;
(88) “rules” means the rules made by the Central/State Government
under
any provision of the Act on the recommendation of the
Council;
(89) “schedule”
means a schedule appended to this
Act;
(90) “securities” shall have meaning assigned to it in sub-section (h) of
section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act,
1956 (42 of 1956);
(91) “second
stage dealer” means a dealer who purchases the
goods from a first stage dealer as defined in sub-section (46);
(92) “services’’
means anything other than goods;
Explanation 1.-
Services include transactions in money but does not include money and
securities;
Explanation 2.-
Services does not include transaction in money other than an activity relating
to the use of money or its conversion by cash or by any other mode, from one
form, currency or denomination, to another form, currency or denomination for which
a separate consideration is charged.
(93) “SGST” means the tax levied under the State Goods and Services
Tax
Act, 2016;
(94) “supplier” in relation to any goods and/or services shall mean the
person supplying the said goods and/or services and shall include an agent
acting as such on behalf of such supplier in relation to the goods and/or
services supplied;
(95) “supply’’
shall have the meaning as assigned to
it in section 3;
(96) “tax” means goods and services tax levied on the supply of
goods and/or services under this Act and includes any amount payable under
section 9 or subsection (10) of section 18;
(97) “tax
period’’ means the period for which the
return is required to be
filed;
(98) “taxable
person’’ shall have the meaning as assigned to
it in section 10;
(99) “taxable
supply’’ means a supply of goods and/or
services which is
chargeable to tax under this Act;
(100) “non-taxable
supply’’ means a supply of goods or
services which is not chargeable to tax under this Act;
(101) “taxable
territory’’ means the territory to which the
provisions of this Act apply;
(102) “Tax
Return Preparer" means any person
who has been approved to act as a Tax Return Preparer under the scheme framed
under section 43;
(103) “telecommunication
service” means service of any description
(including electronic mail, voice mail, data services,
audio text services, video text services, radio paging and cellular mobile
telephone services) which is made available to users by means of any
transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or
intelligence of any nature, by wire, radio, visual or other electro-magnetic
means;
(104) “time of
supply of goods’’ shall have the meaning as assigned
to it in section 12;
(105) “time of
supply of services’’ shall have the meaning as assigned
to it in section 13;
(106) “to
cultivate personally” means to carry
on any agricultural operation on one’s own account-
(a) by one’s own labour, or
(b) by the labour of one’s family, or
(c) by servants on wages payable in cash or kind [(but not in
crop share)] or by hired labour under one’s personal supervision or the
personal supervision of any member of one’s family;
Explanation 1.
- A widow or a minor or a person who is subject to any physical or mental
disability or is a serving member of the armed forces of the Union, shall be deemed
to cultivate land personally if it is cultivated by her or his servants or by hired
labour.
Explanation 2.
- In the case of a Hindu Undivided Family, land shall be deemed to be cultivated
personally, if it is cultivated by any member of such family.
(107) “turnover
in a State” means the aggregate value of all
taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports of goods and / or services made
within a State by a taxable person and inter-state supplies of goods and / or
services made from the State by the said taxable person excluding taxes, if any
charged under the CGST Act, SGST Act and the IGST Act, as the case may be;
Explanation.-
Aggregate turnover does not include the value of inward supplies on which tax
is payable by a person on reverse charge basis under sub-section (3) of Section
8 and the value of inward supplies.
(108) “usual
place of residence” means
(a) in case of an individual, the place where he
ordinarily resides;
(b) in other cases, the place where the person, as defined
in sub-section (73), is incorporated or otherwise legally constituted;
(109) “valid
return” means a return furnished under
sub-section (1) of section 34 on which self-assessed tax has been paid in full;
(110) “works
contract” means a contract wherein transfer
of property in goods is involved in the execution of such contract and includes
contract for building, construction, fabrication, completion, erection,
installation, fitting out, improvement, modification, repair, maintenance,
renovation, alteration or commissioning of any immovable property;
(111) “zero-rated
supply” means supply of any goods and/or
services in
terms of section 15 of the IGST Act 2016; and
(112) Words and expressions not defined in this Act shall
have the meaning
assigned to them in the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act,
2016.