GST Act

What is the GST Act?

The GST Act has been adopted to make a facility for collection of tax as well as a levy on the supply of goods or services of intrastate or both by the Central Government and the affairs associated with it.

How many sections are there in the GST Act?

Under GST Act 2017, there are a total of 174 sections or acts which you would find category-wise right below:

Section 1 – 2 is all about definitions, commencement, and a short title that comes under GST law.

Section 3 – 6 explains the administration of the GST regime including power, authorization, and appointment of officers.

Section 7 – 11 deals with the levy and collection of tax under GST.

Section 12 – 15 is all about time and the value of the supply of goods and services as well.

Section 16 – 21 includes input tax credit matters such as appointment, distribution, eligibility, availability, etc.

Section 22 – 30 explains about registration process under GST Act.

Section 31 – 34 involves tax invoice, credit, and debit notes.

Section 35 – 36 is about accounts and other records and the period of retention of accounts.

Section 37 – 48 deals with returns under GST like first return, annual return, final return, and so on.

Section 49 – 53A is all about the payment of tax as per the GST regime.

Section 54 – 58 includes GST-related refund matters such as consumer welfare fund, utilization of fund, refund of tax, etc.

Section 59 – 64 comprises provisional assessment, self-assessment, assessment of unregistered persons, and more under GST law.

Section 65 – 66 is about special audits and audits by tax authorities.

Section 67 – 72 constitutes seizure, arrest, search, and inspection that comes under GST law.

Section 73 – 84 deals with demands and recovery that are related to the GST regime.

Section 85 – 94 is all about liability to pay in a certain case under GST.

Section 95 – 106 all these sections under the GST act deal with the advance ruling that includes application, procedure, and authority, etc.

Section 107 – 121 explains appeals and revision in GST.

Section 122 – 138 describes penalties and offences in the GST regime.

Section 139 – 142 is about transitional provisions like the migration of existing taxpayers, miscellaneous transitional provisions, etc.

Section 143 – 174 includes a long list of miscellaneous items in GST such as common portal, job work procedure, the burden of proof, deemed exports, levy of fee, etc.

Objectives of the GST Act 2017

Under the 2017 GST Act, the Central Government imposed taxes on the provision of certain services in the form of service tax, manufacture of certain goods in the form of Central Excise duty, inter-state sale of goods in the form of Central Sales tax, and more. Likewise, the State Governments imposed taxes on the entry of goods in the State in the form of entry tax, retail sales in the form of value-added tax, purchase tax, luxury tax, and so on. There are several difficulties faced under old taxation laws such as cascading of taxes, disparate tax rates, dissimilar tax practices, non-tariff barriers, and so on. All of these taxes come under the list of GST (goods and services tax) that would be imposed on supplies right from manufacture or import to the last level of retail. Therefore any tax imposed by the State Governments or the Central Government on the distribution of goods or services has now been added to GST. It is nothing but a dual levy where the State Government (SGST Act 2017) and the Central Government (CSGT Act 2017) will levy and collect tax in the form of central and state goods or services tax.

Who is liable for registration under GST Act 2017?

• Except for the suppliers of special category states, every supplier should register under GST Act in the State or Union territory if his aggregate turnover is more than Rs. 20 lakhs in a fiscal year.

• Suppliers of special category states should register under this act if their aggregate turnover is Rs. 10 lakhs in a fiscal year.

• Every individual who has a license or is registered under an existing law right after the appointed day should register under the act

• Any taxable person who undertakes a business should register under this act.

Features of CGST Act 2017

The salient features of the CGST Act 2017 are given below:

• To make the base of the input tax credit broad by making it accessible with regards to taxes paid on supply of services or goods or both intended to be used or just used in the furtherance or course of business;
• To impose a tax on all supplies of goods or services of intra-State or both;
• To render for the conduct of an audit of registered individuals to check compliance with the provisions of the Act;
• To adopt obligation on electronic commerce operators to accommodate TDS at 1% of the value of taxable supplies and out of payments to distributors distributing services or goods through their online portals;
• To form facilities for penalties to contravene the provisions of the proposed regime;
• To provide for powers of seizure, search, arrest, and inspection to the officers;
• To implement the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal by the Central Government to hear requests against the orders given by the Revisional Authority or the Appellate Authority;
• To provide for the elaboration of transitional provisions to make the transition of existing taxpayers smooth;
• To provide for self-assessment of the registered person who pays taxes on supplied goods and services;
• To offer for an anti-profiteering clause to make sure that business is carried out on the advantage of reduced tax incidence on goods or services or both to the customers; and
• To provide for recovering the arrears of tax with the use of different models like movable and immovable property of defaulting taxable person, detaining and sale of goods

What is GST Amendment Act

When it comes to the GST amendment act as a whole, duty on imported goods has been levied under the Customs Act. It further enables facilities that have been proposed to adopt GST and IGST compensation cess in imported goods into India. There is an amendment in the Excise legislation that restricts certain goods such as Petroleum products, Cigarettes, Tobacco products, and so on which cannot be subsumed in GST or at a later date. Various key cesses to be repealed like education cess and secondary and higher education cess on excisable goods, sugar cess, Krishi Kalyan Cess on services, Clean energy cess, NCCD, infrastructure cess, etc.