Some important Notifications in GST that need to be bookmarked

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

One of the source of revenue to the Government is Goods and Services Tax (GST). GST is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods or services or both by a registered taxpayer. GST cannot be charged by a person not registered under GST. GST registration gives an authority to the taxpayer to collect tax from the customer on taxable supply. The rate of tax to be charged on goods or services are given vide notifications in GST. The following are some of the notifications that provides the applicable tax rate on supply of goods and services.

Notification No.1/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017: GST rate on goods: The Central Government vide this notification notifies rate of the central tax of 2.5%, 6%, 9%, 14%, 1.5%, 0.125% to be charged on supply of goods that are enumerated in Schedule I, II, III, IV, V, VI. Equal rate of tax is notified by State Government vide notification published in their respective GST website. Thus, the effective tax rate on supply of goods are 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%, 3%, 0.25%. The said notification is amended from time to time by the Government to amend the tax rate on goods based on the recommendations of the trade/industry/taxpayers. 

Notification No.2/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017: GST rate on goods: The Central Government by exercising the power conferred on it by Section 11(1) of CGST Act, 2017, has exempted certain goods from whole of GST. The list of exempted goods are enumerated under this notification. One can find his goods in this notification through HSN. The HSN is maintained in the notification at 4 digits level. For some goods 8 digits HSN is also maintained. The goods mentioned in the notification includes live assess, mules and hinnies, live bovine animals, live swine, ......, curd, lassi, butter milk, .....bananas and various other goods. In total 153 serial numbers are there in this notification each having the name of goods that are exempted from GST.

Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017: GST rate on services: The Central Government has notified tax rate on supply of services vide this notification. The rate notified in this notification are 0.75%, 2.5%, 3.75%, 6%, 9%, 14%. The equal tax rate is notified by each State and hence the effective tax rate on supply of service are 1.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 12%, 18%, 28%. The rate 14% of tax is applicable on gambling, services supplied by way of admission to entertainment events or access to amusement facilities including casinos, race, club, any sporting event such as Indian Premier League and the like. In total 39 serial numbers are there in this notification enumerating the services and the applicable rate.

Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017: GST rate on services: The Central Government vide this notification has exempted certain services from whole of the GST. In total the notification has 82 serial numbers having the number of services that are exempted from GST. The services given in this notification are services supplied by an entity registered under section 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 by way of charitable activities, services supplied by way of transfer of a going concern, as a whole or an independent part thereof and various other services. In order to find whether the service supplied by a taxpayer is exempted or taxable the aforesaid notification should be referred by the taxpayer.

Notification 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017: GST rate on services covered under reverse charge: In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 9(3) of CGST Act, the Central Government on the recommendations of the GST Council has notified the category of services on which the tax shall be paid by the recipient of such services. The services are goods transport agency service, legal consultancy service, sponsorship, services supplied by a director of a company or a body corporate to the said company of the body corporate and few services that are listed in the notification.

Notification no. 4/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017: GST rate on goods covered under reverse charge:  In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 9(3) of CGST Act, the Central Government on the recommendations of the GST Council has notified the supply of goods on which the tax shall be paid by the recipient of such goods. The goods that are listed in the notification are cashew nuts, not shelled or peeled which when supplied by agriculturist to any registered person, the registered person receiving the goods shall pay tax under reverse charge. Similarly there are other goods that are enumerated in this notification where the recipient shall pay tax.

Notification No.8/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017: GST rate on purchase of goods or services from an unregistered person by a registered person: Provision under section 9(4) of CGST Act, requires the registered person to pay GST under reverse charge if he purchases goods or services or both from an unregistered person. Subsequently, vide notification 8/2017 supra exemption from payment of GST was given on the condition that the total purchases in a day should not be more than five thousand. Vide notification no.38/2017 dated 13.10.2017, the said provision was suspended till 31.03.2018. The suspension was further extended till 30.06.2018 vide notification no. 10/2018-CTR dated 23.03.2018. The suspension was further extended till 30.09.2018 and later to 30.09.2019. One one fine day the provision under notification 8/2017-CTR dated 28.06.2017 was rescinded vide notification no. 1/2019-CTR dated 29.01.2019.

In line with the above mentioned Notifications the respective State Government also has published the notification in their GST website. The notifications published by State Government are replica of the notification published by Central Government. The above notifications are available in www.cbic.gov.in. The same can also be found in TMI - Tax Management India. TMI keeps the original notification afresh by updating the changes that are carried out by new notification. If one opens the old notification he can see all the amendment that are carried out in that notification with a reference of all the notifications vide which amended was carried out. The reference to the notifcation is given at the bottom of the notification. Thus, it becomes very easy for a reader, taxpayer, consultant to refer to notifications in TMI rather that the government gst site. A nominal fees is charged but the benefit is enormous. Thus, the reader should subscribe to TMI and enjoy reading the updates that are made available to subscriber through SMS, e-mail, website etc.