Clause (5) of section 2 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the IGST Act) defines the expression “export of goods” as follows:-
“(5) “export of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means taking goods out of India to a place outside India;”
This definition of expression “export of goods” represents activity of “taking goods out of India to a place outside India”. In this definition, activity of supply is missing. In the Constitution of India, for an export supply of goods or services or both, expression “supply of goods, or of services or both in the course of import of the goods or services or both into, or export of the goods or services or both out of, the territory of India” has been used.
The definition of expression “export of goods”, provided in clause (5) of the IGST Act, may be useful for the purpose of the Customs Act but it cannot be used for the purpose of the IGST Act. In the expression “supply of goods, or of services or both in the course of import of the goods or services or both into, or export of the goods or services or both out of, the territory of India “, activity of supply and activity of export are so integrally connected that they cannot be dissociated.
Definition of expression “export of goods”, provided in clause (5) of section 2 of the IGST Act, has been used in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 16 of the IGST Act. There, the said expression, “export of goods” has been treated a supply of goods, which is wrong. Second thing is that in the Constitution, in the expression “supply of goods or services or both in the course of export of the goods or services or both out of the territory of India” words “out of the territory of India” have been used whereas the definition of expression “export of goods”, words “out of India” have been used.
To have more information on sale or supply of goods in the course of export of the goods out of the territory of India, I will like to advise learned readers of this article to read my other article published on this website with title ‘Expression “In the Course of” in GST Laws’.
To know more about what is meant by gst
Disclaimer: Except the quoted versions, all other views expressed here are my personal views and are meant only for academic discussion. Readers are advised to obey the law and to seek opinion of their legal advisors before acting upon the views expressed here. I and the publishers of this article disown any liability on account of any loss or damage that may be caused on account of use of views expressed here.
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For the benefit of readers of the article, I am quoting hereunder sub-section (1) of section 16 of the IGST Act, referred to in the above article.
“Zero rated supply.
16. (1) “Zero rated supply” means any of the following supplies of goods or services or both, namely:—
(a) export of goods or services or both; or
(b) supply of goods or services or both to a Special Economic Zone developer or a Special Economic Zone unit.”
Here, “export of services” is a supply but “export of goods” is not a supply as per definitions of these expressions given in section 2 of the CGST Act.