GST Tutorial | IGST Act Preliminary

IGST Act Preliminary | GST

IGST Act Preliminary covers various provisions of the IGST Act, as

Section 1. Short title, extent and commencement

(1) This Act may be called the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2016.

(2) It extends to the whole of India.

(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act.

Section 2. Definitions

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(1) “account” means an account bearing interest to the depositor, and includes a non-resident external account and a non-resident ordinary account;

(2) “appropriate State”, in relation to a taxable person, means that State where he is registered or liable to be registered under section 23 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2016.

Explanation: For the purpose of this Act, “State” includes Union Territory with Legislature;

(3) “banking company” has the meaning assigned to it in clause (a) of section 45A of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934);

(4) “customs frontiers of India” means the limits of the area of a customs station as defined in section 2 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962) in which imported goods are ordinarily kept before clearance by customs authorities;

(5) “export of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means taking goods out of India to a place outside India;

(6) “export of services” means the supply of any service when

(a) the supplier of service is located in India,

(b) the recipient of service is located outside India,

(d) the payment for such service has been received by the supplier of service in convertible foreign exchange, and

(e) the supplier of service and recipient of service are not merely establishments of a distinct person in accordance with explanation 1 of section 5;

(7) “financial institution” has the meaning assigned to it in clause (c) of section 45-I of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934);

(8) “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;

(9) “Government” means the Central Government;

(10) “import of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions,

means bringing goods into India from a place outside India;

(11) “import of service” means the supply of any service, where

(a) the supplier of service is located outside India,

(b) the recipient of service is located in India, and

(12) “India” means,-

(a) the territory of the Union as referred to in clauses (2) and (3) of Article 1 of the Constitution;

(b) its territorial waters, continental shelf, exclusive economic zone or any other maritime zone as defined in the Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and other Maritime Zones Act, 1976 (80 of 1976);

(d) the air space above its territory and territorial waters; and

(e) the installations, structures and vessels located in the continental shelf of India and the exclusive economic zone of India, for the purposes of prospecting or extraction or production of mineral oil and natural gas and supply thereof;

(13) “intermediary” means a broker, an agent or any other person, by whatever name called, who arranges or facilitates the supply of a service (hereinafter called the ‘main’ service) or the supply of goods, between two or more persons, but does not include a person who supplies the main service or supplies the goods on his account;

(14) “Integrated Goods and Services Tax” (IGST) means tax levied under this Act on the supply of any goods and/or services in the course of inter-State trade or commerce;

(15) “input tax” in relation to a taxable person, means the Integrated Goods and Services Tax, including that on import of goods, Central Goods and Services Tax or State Goods and Services Tax, as the case may be, charged on any supply of goods and/or services to him and includes the tax payable under sub-section (2) of section 5, but does not include the tax paid under section 9 of the CGST/SGST Act;

(16) “input tax credit” means credit of ‘input tax’ as defined in sub-section (15);

(17) “location of the recipient of services” means:

(a) where a supply is received at a place of business for which 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, that is to say, 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;

(18) “location of the supplier of services” means:

(a) where a supply is made from a place of business for which 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, that is to say, 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;

(19) “non-banking financial company” means-

(a) a financial institution which is a company;

(b) a non-banking institution which is a company and which has as its principal business the receiving of deposits, under any scheme or arrangement or in any other manner, or lending in any manner; or

(c) such other non-banking institution or class of such institutions, as the Reserve Bank of India may, with the previous approval of the Central Government and by notification in the Official Gazette specify;

(20) “non-taxable online recipient” means Government, a local authority, a governmental authority, an individual or any person not registered under section 23 of the CGST Act, 2016 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, “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 Government, with 90% or more participation by way of equity or control, to carry out any function entrusted to a municipality under article 243W of the Constitution;

(21) “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,-

(a) advertising on the internet;

(b) providing cloud services;

(d) providing data or information, retrievable or otherwise, to any person, in electronic form through a computer network;

(e) online supplies of digital content (movies, television shows, music, etc.);

(f) digital data storage; and

(g) online gaming;

(22) “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;

(b) a place where a taxable person maintains his books of account; or

(23) “special economic zone’’ shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (za) of section 2 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 (28 of 2005);

(24) “SEZ developer” means a person who, or a State Government which, has been granted by the Central Government a letter of approval under sub-section (10) of section 3 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 (28 of 2005) and includes an Authority and a Co-Developer as defined under section 2 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 (28 of 2005);

(26) “supply” has the same meaning as assigned to it in section 3 of the CGST Act, 2016;

(27) “tourist” means a person not normally resident in India, who enters India for a stay of not more than six months for legitimate non-immigrant purposes;

(28) “output tax” in relation to a taxable person, means the IGST chargeable under the Act on taxable supply of goods and/or services made by him or his agent and excludes tax payable by him on reverse charge basis;

(29) “zero-rated supply” shall have the meaning assigned to it under section 15; and

(30) Words and expressions not defined in this Act shall have the meaning assigned to them in the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2016.