LEGAL TERMINOLOGY IN GST LAW (PART -9)

[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.

This parts covers the meaning and scope of Revisional Authority [Section 2(99)], State [Section 2(103)] and State Tax [Section 2(104)].

Revisional Authority [Section 2(99)]

As per section 2(99) of the CGST Act, 2017, ‘Revisional Authority’ means an authority appointed or authorised for revision of decision or orders as referred to in section 108. It contains provisions in relating to powers of revisionary authority and how it has to act and order for revision.

Under section 108 of the CGST Act, 2017, the Commissioner has been given revisionary powers. He can stay the operation of the order for such period as he deems fit and also make further inquiry for passing a revised order.

The Commissioner may on his own motion or upon information received by him, call for and examine the record of any proceeding under this Act, and if he considers that any decision or order passed under this Act by any officer subordinate to him is erroneous in so far as it is prejudicial to the interest of the revenue, he may, if necessary, stay the operation of such decision or order for such period as he deems fit and after giving the person concerned an opportunity of being heard and after making such further inquiry as may be necessary, pass such order, as he thinks just and proper, including enhancing or modifying or annulling the said decision or order.

For this purpose, ‘record’ shall include all records relating to any proceedings under this Act available at the time of examination by the commissioner.

It may be noted that ‘decision’ shall include intimation given by any officer who is sub-ordinate to commissioner or lower in rank than the revisional authority which implies that review by commissioner could be of any show cause notice or any other communication.

State [Section 2(103)]

As per section 2(103) of the CGST Act, 2017, ‘State’ includes a Union territory with Legislature.

The term State has been defined as an inclusive definition to include any Union Territory with a ‘legislative’. It would include State Government and Union Territories with legislature.

For example, Union Territory of Delhi, Union Territory of Pondicherry State of Maharashtra /  Andhra Pradesh / Karnataka, Ladakh and so on.

According to General Clauses Act, 1897, ‘State’ shall mean a part A State, Part B State or Part C State and a State specified in First Schedule to the Constitution of India and shall include a Union Territory.

State Tax [Section 2(104)]

As per section 2(104) of the CGST Act, 2017, ‘State tax’ means the tax levied under any State Goods and Services Tax Act (SGST).

GST has been introduced in India on a dual model wherein every transaction of supply of inter-State supply shall be subject to levy of GST comprising of CGST and SGST (equally shared). However, in case of intra-state supplies, only one GST i.e., IGST shall be levied. For the purpose of administering the state tax, every state has its own piece of legislation.

SGST means the tax levied under the SGST Act on intra-state supplies of goods  and services and will be administered by the respective State Government. SGST could be set off against SGST credit or IGST credit only.

Features of SGST

• Levied by the States through a statute on all transactions of supply of goods and services made for or without a consideration.
• State GST shall be paid to the accounts of the respective State.
• Exceptions would be exempted goods and services, goods kept out of GST and transactions below prescribed threshold limits.
• Basic features of law such as chargeability, taxable event, measure, valuation, classification would be uniform across these Statutes / States as far as practicable.