Friends !
Clause (21), of section 2 of the Central Goods and Services
Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the CGST Act), provides definition of
term "central Tax" as under:
(21) “central tax” means the central goods and
services tax levied under section 9;
A reading of
the CGST Act reveals that section 9 provides for levy and collection of goods
and services tax, computed on the basis of value of supply and rate of tax.
This is general provision for levy and payment of tax. Section 10 of the Act,
titled "Composition levy" provides alternate scheme of levy and
payment of tax. Under section 10, tax is to be computed in accordance with
provisions of section 10 and be paid in accordance with the relevant provisions
of the CGST Act.
In section
10, what is payable is amount. Word "tax" or term "tax
amount" or "amount of tax"
has not been used. Unless we include amount payable under section 10 in
the definition of the term "central tax", several provisions of the
Act will not be applicable to this amount. For example, for the amount payable
under section 10, terms "tax paid" and "tax payable" have
frequently been used in section 39 of the Act. This is creating confusion.
MY QUEST IS: Whether the definition of term "central
tax" provided in clause (21) of the CGST Act, is complete?
MY answer is a big NO.
It is
noteworthy that definition of term "central tax" does not include
amount payable or paid under the provisions of section 10. Therefore, definition of term "central tax" provided in clause (21) of section 2
of the CGST Act is incomplete. The term "central tax" could have been defined
properly as follows:
(21) “central tax” means the central tax
levied, under section 9, on the supply of goods or services or both and it includes
amount computed and payable in accordance with provisions of section 10;
Hope that the
persons concerned will take note of it. Similar is the situation in the State
Goods and Services Tax Acts.
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