Section 2 IGST Act - Definitions

(1) Central Goods and Services Tax Act means the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

(2) Central tax means the tax levied and collected under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act.

(3) 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 this clause, "stopover" means a place where a passenger can disembark either to transfer to another conveyance or break the journey for a certain period in order to resume it at a later point of time.

(4) Customs frontiers of India means the limits of a customs area as defined in section 2 of the Customs Act, 1962.

(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:

1. the supplier of service is located in India;
2. the recipient of service is located outside India;
3. the place of supply of service is outside India;
4. payment for the service has been received by the supplier in convertible foreign exchange, or in Indian rupees wherever permitted by the Reserve Bank of India; and
5. the supplier and recipient are not merely establishments of a distinct person in accordance with Explanation 1 in section 8.

(7) Fixed establishment means a place, other than the registered place of business, 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.

(8) Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act means the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017.

(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 services means the supply of any service where:

1. the supplier of service is located outside India;
2. the recipient of service is located in India; and
3. the place of supply of service is in India.

(12) Integrated tax means the integrated goods and services tax levied under the IGST Act.

(13) Intermediary means a broker, an agent or any other person, by whatever name called, who arranges or facilitates the supply of goods or services or both, or securities, between two or more persons, but does not include a person who supplies such goods or services or both or securities on his own account.

(14) Location of the recipient of services means:

1. where a supply is received at a registered place of business, the location of that place of business;
2. where it is received at a fixed establishment elsewhere, the location of that fixed establishment;
3. where it is received at more than one establishment, the location of the establishment most directly concerned with receipt of the supply; and
4. in the absence of such places, the recipient's usual place of residence.

(15) Location of the supplier of services means:

1. where a supply is made from a registered place of business, the location of that place of business;
2. where it is made from a fixed establishment elsewhere, the location of that fixed establishment;
3. where it is made from more than one establishment, the location of the establishment most directly concerned with provision of the supply; and
4. in the absence of such places, the supplier's usual place of residence.

(16) Non-taxable online recipient means any unregistered person receiving online information and database access or retrieval services located in taxable territory.

Explanation: For this clause, "unregistered person" includes a person registered solely in terms of clause (vi) of section 24 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

(17) Online information and database access or retrieval services (OIDAR) means services whose delivery is mediated by information technology over the internet or an electronic network and the nature of which renders their supply impossible to ensure in the absence of information technology. It includes electronic services such as:

1. advertising on the internet;
2. providing cloud services;
3. provision of e-books, movies, music, software and other intangibles through telecommunication networks or the internet;
4. providing data or information in electronic form through a computer network;
5. online supplies of digital content, including movies, television shows and music;
6. digital data storage; and
7. online gaming, excluding online money gaming as defined in clause (80B) of section 2 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

(18) Output tax, in relation to a taxable person, means integrated tax chargeable under the IGST Act on taxable supplies made by that person or the person's agent, but excludes tax payable on reverse charge basis.

(19) Special Economic Zone has the meaning assigned to it in clause (za) of section 2 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005.

(20) Special Economic Zone developer has the meaning assigned to it in clause (g) of section 2 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 and includes an Authority as defined in clause (d) and a Co-Developer as defined in clause (f) of section 2 of that Act.

(21) Supply has the same meaning as assigned to it in section 7 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act.

(22) Taxable territory means the territory to which the provisions of the IGST Act apply.

(23) Zero-rated supply has the meaning assigned to it in section 16 of the IGST Act.

(24) Undefined expressions: words and expressions used but not defined in the IGST Act, and defined in the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act or the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, have the meanings assigned to them in those Acts.

(25) Reference to corresponding law: any reference in the IGST Act to a law which is not in force in the State of Jammu and Kashmir is, in relation to that State, to be construed as a reference to the corresponding law, if any, in force there.