Case Law Details
In re Rod Retail Private Limited (GST AAAR Delhi)
As per Section 2(5) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, “export of goods” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means taking out of India to a place outside India. Further, as per Section 2(56) of CGST Act, 2017 “India” means the territory of India as referred to in article 1 of the Constitution of India, its Territorial Waters, Seabed and Sub-oil underlying such waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) or any other maritime zone as referred to in the Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and other Maritime Zones Act, 1976, and the air space above its territory and territorial waters. For the purpose of CGST Act, India extends upto the Exclusive Economic Zone upto 200 nautical miles measured from the appropriate baseline.
On going through the definition of “customs frontiers of India” under s2(4) of the IGST Act, 2017, we find that it has reference to the “customs area” as defined in section 2 of the Customs Act, 1962. In terms of s. 2(11) of the Customs Act, 1962 “customs area” means the area of a customs station or a warehouse and includes any area in which imported goods or export goods are ordinarily kept before clearance by Customs Authorities;
We find that the location of the appellant’s shop is in the Security Hold Area (SHA) and this is undisputed fact on record. On a conjoint reading of the definitions, as extracted herein, it naturally follows that appellant’s shop in SHA cannot by any stretch of imagination be said to be located outside India. Instead, we find that the appellant’s shop is located within India, as defined under s2(56) of the CGST Act, 2017 read with s2 (27) of the Customs Act, 1962. In the light of the aforesaid findings of ours, when the shop of the appellant is located in the SHA, the same is in ‘India’.
Moving ahead we need to ascertain as to whether the same constitutes ‘export of goods” or “zero rated supply”. Export of goods “export of goods” means taking goods out of India to a place outside India. We have already held that the transactions of the appellant are taking place in the SHA, which falls well within the definition of ‘India, as extracted herein. In light of the aforesaid finding, we conclude that the sale transactions of the appellant cannot be equated to the ‘export of goods’ under s2(5) of the IGST Act, 2017 read with s2(19) of the Customs Act, 1962
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