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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;
(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 First Appellate Authority and
the Appellate Tribunal;
(5) “agent” means a person who carries on the business of supply or receipt of
goods and/or services on behalf of another, whether disclosed or not and includes a
factor, broker, commission agent, arhatia, del credere agent, intermediary or an
auctioneer or any other mercantile agent, by whatever name called, and whether of the
same description as hereinbefore mentioned or not;
(6) “aggregate turnover” means the aggregate value of all taxable and non-taxable
supplies, exempt supplies and exports of goods and/or services 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 supplies on which tax is
levied on reverse charge basis 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 applies.
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(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 81;
(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;
(14) “audit” means detailed 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
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;
(17) “business” includes –
(a) any trade, commerce, manufacture, profession, vocation or any other similar activity,
whether or not it is for a pecuniary benefit;
(b) any transaction in connection with or incidental or ancillary to (a) above;
(c) any 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;
(18) “business vertical” shall have the meaning assigned to a ‘business segment’ in
Accounting Standard 17 issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India;
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(19) “capital assets” shall have the meaning as assigned to it in the Income Tax Act,
1961 (43 of 1961) but the said expression shall not include jewellery held for personal
use or property not connected with the business;
(20) “capital goods” means: -
(A) the following goods, namely:-
(i) all goods falling within Chapter 82, Chapter 84, Chapter 85, Chapter 90, heading
6805, grinding wheels and the like, and parts thereof falling under heading 6804 of the
Schedule to this Act;
(ii) pollution control equipment;
(iii) components, spares and accessories of the goods specified at (i) and (ii);
(iv) moulds and dies, jigs and fixtures;
(v) refractories and refractory materials;
(vi) tubes and pipes and fittings thereof;
(vii) storage tank; and
(viii) motor vehicles other than those falling under tariff headings 8702, 8703, 8704,
8711 and their chassis but including dumpers and tippers
used-
(1) at the place of business for supply of goods; or
(2) outside the place of business for generation of electricity for captive use at theplace
of business; or
(3) for supply of services,
(B) motor vehicle designed for transportation of goods including their chassis registered
in the name of the supplier of service, when used for
(i) supplying the service of renting of such motor vehicle; or
(ii) transportation of inputs and capital goods used for supply of service; or
(iii) supply of courier agency service;
(C) motor vehicle designed to carry passengers including their chassis, registered in the
name of the supplier of service, when used for supplying the service of-
(i) transportation of passengers; or
(ii) renting of such motor vehicle; or
(iii) imparting motor driving skills;
(D) Components, spares and accessories of motor vehicles which are capital goods for
the taxable person.
(21) “casual taxable person” means a person who occasionally undertakes
transactions involving supply of goods and/or services in the course or furtherance of
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business whether as principal, agent or in any other capacity, in a taxable territory
where he has no fixed place of business;
(22) “CGST” means the tax levied under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act,
2016;
(23) “chartered accountant” means a chartered accountant within the meaning of
the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (38 of 1949);
(24) “commissioner” means the Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax
/Commissioner of State Goods and Services Tax appointed under section 4 of the
Central/State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2016;
(25) “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;
(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 consisting of -
(a) two or more goods;
(b) two or more services; or
(c) a combination of goods and services
provided in the course or furtherance of business, whether or not the same can be
segregated;
(28) “consideration” in relation to the supply of goods and/or services to any person,
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 and/or services, whether by
the said person or by any other person;
(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 and/or services,
whether by the said person or by any other person:
Provided that a deposit, whether refundable or not, given in respect of the supply of
goods and/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 stop over 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
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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, 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 24;
(36) “debit note” means a document issued by a taxable person as referred to in
sub-section (2) of section 24;
(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) . . .
(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 cash ledger in electronic form maintained at
the common portal for each registered taxable person in the manner as may be
prescribed in this behalf;
(41) “electronic credit ledger” means the input tax credit ledger in electronic form
maintained at the common portal for each registered taxable person in the manner as
may be prescribed in this behalf;
(42) “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 are
specified in Schedule . . . of the Act or which may be exempt from tax under section 10;
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(43) “export of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions,
means taking out of India to a place outside India;
(44) the supply of any service shall be treated as “export of service” when
(a) the supplier of service is located in India,
(b) the recipient of service is located outside India,
(c) the place of supply of service is 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;
Explanation.- For the purposes of clause (e), an establishment of a person in India and
any of his other establishment outside India shall be treated as establishments of distinct
persons.
(45) “First Appellate Authority” means an authority referred to in section 79;
(46) “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;
(47) “fund” means the Consumer Welfare Fund established under section 40;
(48) “goods’’ means every kind of movable property other than actionable claim and
money but includes securities, growing crops, grass and things attached to or forming
part of the land which are agreed to be severed before supply or under the contract of
supply;
Explanation.– For the purpose of this clause, the term ‘moveable property’ shall not
include any intangible property.
(49) “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;
(50) “IGST” means the tax levied under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act,
2016;
(51) “import of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions,
means bringing into India from a place outside India;
(52) the supply of any service shall be treated as an “import of service” if,
(a) the supplier of service is located outside India,
(b) the recipient of service is located in India,
(c) the place of supply of service is in India, and
(d) the supplier of service and the recipient of service are not merely establishments of a
distinct person;
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Explanation 1.- An establishment of a person in India and any of his other establishment
outside India shall be treated as establishments of distinct persons.
Explanation 2.- A person carrying on a business through a branch or agency or
representational office in any territory shall be treated as having an establishment in
that territory.
(53) “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);
(c) the seabed and the subsoil underlying the territorial waters;
(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;
(54) “input” means any goods other than capital goods, subject to exceptions as may
be provided under this Act or the rules made thereunder, used or intended to be used by
a supplier for making an outward supply in the course or furtherance of business;
(55) “input service” means any service, subject to exceptions as may be provided
under this Act or the rules made thereunder, used or intended to be used by a supplier
for making an outward supply in the course or furtherance of business;
(56) "Input Service Distributor" means an office of the supplier of goods and / or
services which receives tax invoices issued under section 23 towards receipt of input
services and issues tax invoice or such other document as prescribed 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;
Explanation.- For the purposes of distributing the credit of CGST (SGST in State Acts)
and / or IGST, Input Service Distributor shall be deemed to be a supplier of services.
(57) "input tax" in relation to a taxable person, means the {IGST and CGST}/{IGST
and SGST} charged on any supply of goods and/or services to him which are used, or
are intended to be used, in the course or furtherance of his business and includes the tax
payable under sub-section (3) of section 7;
(58) “input tax credit” means credit of ‘input tax’ as defined in section 2(56);
(59) “intangible property” means any property other than tangible property;
(60) “invoice” shall have the meaning as assigned to it under section 23;
(61) “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;
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(62) “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;
(63) “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;
(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;
(64) “location of recipient of service” means:
(i) where a supply is received at a place of business for which registration has been
obtained, the location of such place of business;
(ii) 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;
(iii) 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
(iv) in absence of such places, the location of the usual place of residence of the
recipient;
(65) “location of supplier of service” means:
(i) where a supply is made from a place of business for which registration has been
obtained, the location of such place of business ;
(ii) 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;
(iii) 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
(iv) in absence of such places, the location of the usual place of residence of the
supplier;
(66) “manufacturer” shall have the meaning assigned to it by the Central Excise
Act, 1944 (1 of 1944);
(67) “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
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about the same time and at the same commercial level where the recipient and the
supplier are not related;
(68) “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 such similar instrument 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;
(69) “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;
(70) “non-taxable territory” means the territory which is outside the taxable territory;
(71) “notification” means notification published in the Official Gazette and the
expressions ‘notify’ and ‘notified’ shall be construed accordingly;
(72) ”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;
(73) “outward supply” in relation to a person, shall mean supply of goods and/or
services, whether by sale, transfer, barter, exchange, licence, rental, lease or disposal
made or agreed to be made by such person in the course or furtherance of business
except in case of such supplies where the tax is payable on reverse charge basis;
(74) “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;
(75) “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
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(c) a place where a taxable person is engaged in business through an agent, by
whatever name called;
(76) “prescribed’’ means prescribed by the rules, regulations or by any notification
issued under this Act;
(77) “principal” means a person on whose behalf an agent carries on the business of
supply or receipt of goods and/or services;
(78) “principal place of business” means the place of business specified as the
principal place of business in the certificate of registration where the taxable person
keeps and maintains the accounts and records as specified under section 42 ;
(79) “proper officer” in relation to any function to be performed under this Act, means
the officer of goods and services tax who is assigned that function by the
Board/Commissioner of SGST;
(80) “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.
(81) “regulations” means the regulations made by the Board/Commissioner under
any provision of the Act on the recommendation of the Council;
(82) 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 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.
(83) “removal’’, in relation to goods, means -
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(a) dispatch 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;
(84) “return” means any return prescribed or otherwise required to be furnished by or
under this Act or rules made thereunder;
(85) “reverse charge’’, means the liability to pay tax by the person receiving goods
and / or services instead of the person supplying the goods and / or services in respect
of such categories of supplies as the Central or a State Government may, on the
recommendation of the Council, by notification, specify;
(86) “rules” means the rules made by the Central/State Government under any
provision of the Act on the recommendation of the Council;
(87) “schedule” means a schedule appended to this Act;
(88) “services’’ means anything other than goods;
Explanation: Services include intangible property and actionable claim but does not
include money.
(89) “SGST” means the tax levied under the State Goods and Services Tax Act;
(90) “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];
(91) “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;
(92) “supply’’ shall have the meaning as assigned to it in section 3;
(93) “tangible property” means any property that can be touched or felt;
(94) “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 8;
(95) “tax period’’ means the period for which the tax return is required to be filed;
(96) “taxable person’’ shall have the meaning as assigned to it in section 9 of this Act;
(97) “taxable supply’’ means a supply of goods and/or services which is chargeable to
tax under this Act;
(98) “taxable territory’’ means the territory to which the provisions of this Act apply;
(99) “Tax Return Preparer" means any person who has been approved to act as a
Tax Return Preparer under the scheme framed under section 34;
(100) “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;
(101) “time of supply of goods’’ shall have the meaning as assigned to it in section
12;
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(102) “time of supply of services’’ shall have the meaning as assigned to it in section
13;
(103) “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.
(104) “turnover in a State” means the aggregate value of all taxable and non-taxable
supplies, including exempt supplies and 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;
(105) “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 (74), is
incorporated or otherwise legally constituted;
(106) “valid return” shall have the meaning assigned to it under sub-section (3) of
section 27.
(107) “works contract” means an agreement for carrying out for cash, deferred
payment or other valuable consideration, building, construction, fabrication, erection,
installation, fitting out, improvement, modification, repair, renovation or commissioning
of any moveable or immovable property;
(108) “year” means the financial year; and
(109) “zero-rated supply” means a supply of any goods and/or services on which no
tax is payable but credit of the input tax related to that supply is admissible;
Explanation.- Exports shall be treated as zero-rated supply.