LEGAL TERMINOLOGY IN GST LAW (PART -4)

[Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal]

The Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act) as amended upto March, 2024 contains 124 definitions, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (IGST Act) contains 24 definitions and the Union Territories Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (UTGST Act) contains 9 definitions of various terms which find place in statutory provisions of GST.

In this ongoing series, author makes an attempt to cover meaning, scope and interpretation of these definitions which forms important and integral part of the legal framework of levy and collection of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India. Various terms and expressions will be covered in different parts of this series.

Address of delivery [Section 2(2)]

As per section 2(2) of the CGST Act, 2017, ‘address of delivery’ means the address of the recipient of goods or services or both indicated on the tax invoice issued by a registered person for delivery of such goods or services or both.

Accordingly, following points are to be noted for ‘address of delivery’ –

(a)   It is an address of the recipient of goods or address of the recipient of services.

(b)   It is that address which is indicated on the tax invoice.

(c)   Taxable person should have issued such tax invoice for delivery of goods or services or both.

Since GST is based on supply of goods or services on destination principle, address for delivery (place where supply is to be made) becomes important and relevant.

‘Address’ means the particulars of the place where someone lives or an organization is situated. For individual, it may be permanent address or current residing address. For persons other than individual, it may or may not be the registered address which is mentioned at the time of registration under any law for the time being in force.

‘Invoice’ is defined in section 2(66) read with section 31 of the CGST Act, 2017 to mean a document showing the description, quantity and value of goods or services, tax charged thereon and other prescribed particulars including address of delivery.

‘Taxable person’ is defined in section 2(107) read with sections 22 and 24 of the CGST Act, 2017 to mean a person who carries on any business in India or any State and who is registered or required to be registered under Schedule III of CGST Act, 2017. Invoice issued by taxable person should bear the address of delivery.

Address of delivery is required to determine place of supply for the purpose of IGST and/or CGST/SGST, in the case of inter-state/ intra-state supply(ies) of goods and/or services, when supply(ies) is made other than on job-work basis.

Address on record [Section 2(3)]

As per section 2(3) of the CGST Act, 2017, ‘address on record’ means the address of the recipient as available in the records of the supplier.

In case of service and sale, recipients will be service receiver and buyer of goods respectively. Therefore, address of service receiver or buyer as available in the records of service provider and seller shall be treated as ‘address on record’.

Address on record would imply address as recorded in the records of supplier of goods or services. Such address may therefore, be different from the registered address or address of head office, factory etc. Even the address on record may be different from that in the records of the Department.

Address of delivery represents the place where goods and/or services are to be delivered and/or provided whereas address on record implies address as per records of the supplier of goods/services. Normally, this address is used for billing purposes. Both may be different from the registered address of recipient of supply.