The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has clarified the entitlement of input tax credit where the place of supply is determined in terms of the proviso to sub-section (8) of section 12 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
As per clause (a) of the aforesaid subsection, the place of supply of services by way of transportation of goods, including by mail or courier, to a registered person shall be the location of such registered person. However, the proviso to the aforesaid sub-section which was inserted vide the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018 w.e.f. 01.02.2019 provides that where the transportation of goods is to a place outside India, the place of supply of the said service shall be the place of destination of such goods. In such cases, as the place of supply of services, as per the proviso to sub-section (8) of section 12 of IGST Act, is the concerned foreign destination and not the State where the recipient is registered under GST, doubts are being raised regarding the availability of input tax credit of the said services to the recipient located in India.
In order to clarify this issue and to ensure uniformity in the implementation of the provisions of law across the field formations, the Board, in exercise of its powers conferred by section 168 (1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the CBIC clarified that in case of supply of services by way of transportation of goods, including by mail or courier, where the transportation of goods is to a place outside India, and where the supplier and recipient of the said supply of services are located in India, the place of supply is the concerned foreign destination where the goods are being transported, in accordance with the proviso to the sub-section (8) of section 12 of IGST Act, which was inserted vide the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018 w.e.f. 01.02.2019.
Section 16 of the CGST Act lays down the eligibility and conditions for taking input tax credit whereas, section 17 of the CGST Act provides for apportionment of credit and blocked credits under circumstances specified therein. The said provisions of law do not restrict availment of input tax credit by the recipient located in India if the place of supply of the said input service is outside India. Thus, the recipient of service of transportation of goods shall be eligible to avail input tax credit in respect of the IGST so charged by the supplier, subject to the fulfilment of other conditions laid down in section 16 and 17 of the CGST Act.
The circular further clarified that the supplier of service shall report place of supply of such service by selecting State code as ‘96- Foreign Country’ from the list of codes in the dropdown menu available on the portal in FORM GSTR-1.
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