PRELIMINARY
1. Short title, extent and commencement
(1) This Act may be called the Central / State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2016.
(2) It extends to the whole of India / State’s name.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central or a State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint in this behalf:
Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision.
2. Definitions
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 here in before 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.
(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 there under 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 there under;
(15) “authorized bank” shall mean a bank or a branch of a bank authorized 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;
(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 the place 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 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 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;
