Download SC judgement of Mohit Minerals Vs Union where it was held GST council recommendation not binding on states

Facts and issue of the case

The Union of India is in appeal against a judgment of a Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court dated 23 January 2020. The High Court allowed a petition instituted by the respondents under Article 226 for challenging the constitutionality of two notifications of the Central Government. The bone of contention is whether an Indian importer can be subject to the levy of Integrated Goods and Services Tax² on the component of ocean freight paid by the foreign seller to a foreign shipping line, on a reverse charge basis.

The respondents import non-coking coal from Indonesia, South Africa and the U.S. by ocean transport on a ‘Cost-Insurance-Freight’³ basis which is supplied to domestic industries. The goods are transported from a place outside India, up-to the customs station in India. The respondent pays customs duties on the import of coal, which includes the value of ocean freight. In the case of a CIF contract, the freight invoice is issued by the foreign shipping line to the foreign exporter, without the involvement of the importer. Ocean freight is paid by the importer only when goods are imported under a ‘Free-on-Board’⁴ contract. In the case of a high seas sale transaction, the coal is purchased from the original buyer before it arrives at Indian ports.

Prior to the enforcement of the Goods and Services Tax⁵ regime, service tax on ocean freight was exempted by Notification No. 25/2012-ST (Serial No. 34) dated 20 June 2012. This exemption was withdrawn by Notification No. 01/2017-ST dated 12 January 2017 which levied service tax on the importer, by a reverse charge mechanism. With the advent of the GST regime, Notification No.8/2017- Integrated Tax (Rate) dated 28 June 2017⁶ was issued by the Central Government on the advice of the Goods and Services Tax Council⁷, in exercise of powers under Section 5(1), Section 6(1) and Section 20(iii)-(iv) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act 2017⁸, read with Section 15(5) and Section 16(1) of the Central Goods and Services Act⁹. Entry 9 of Notification 8/2017, effective from 1 July 2017, levied an integrated tax at the rate of 5 per cent on the supply of specified services, including transportation of goods, in a vessel from a place outside India up to the customs station of clearance in India.

On 28 June 2017, the Central Government issued Notification 10/2017/10 ^/Serial 10 of Notification 10/2017 categorized the recipient of services of supply of goods by a person in a non-taxable territory by a vessel to include an importer under Section 2(26) of the Customs Act 1962.

Section 5(1) of the IGST Act authorises the levy of an integrated tax on all inter-state supplies of goods and services or both. The integrated tax can also be levied on goods imported into India on the value determined under Section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act 1975 at the point when customs duties are levied on the goods under Section 12 of the Customs Act 1962 Section 11 of the IGST Act stipulates that the place of supply of goods in the case of goods imported into India shall be the place of the importer. Section 13(9) of the IGST Act contemplates that the place of supply of services, in the case of transportation of goods shall be the destination of the goods. The respondent alleges that the impugned notifications create an element of double taxation, as ocean freight is included in the value of goods for the purpose of customs duty which the importer is liable to pay. The respondent does not dispute the liability of integrated tax on supply of service of transportation when it imports goods on an FOB basis.

The respondent filed a writ petition before the Gujarat High Court challenging Notification 8/2017 and Notification 10/2017on the grounds that: (i) the notifications are ultra vires the IGST Act and CGST Act; (ii) customs duty is levied on the component of ocean freight and the levy of IGST on the freight element in the course of transportation would amount to double taxation; (iii) though in the case of high sea sales, the importer is a different entity yet this regime would tax the respondent as the importer and the recipient of service; (iv) in the case of a CIF contract, the supply of service of transport of goods in a vessel is by a foreign shipping line located in a non-taxable territory to an exporter located in a non- taxable territory by a vessel outside the territory of India which cannot be subject to tax under the IGST Act; (v) Notification 10/2017 transgresses the provisions of Section 5(3) of the IGST Act as instead of the “recipient” mentioned therein, the “importer” as defined in section 2(26) of the Customs Act, is made liable to pay tax; and (vi) Entry 9(ii) and para 2 of Notification 8/2017, read with Notification 10/2017, creates a deeming fiction and a separate taxable event which is not permissible in law.

The Union of India urged before the High Court that although tax is being paid twice on the value of ocean freight, it is not unconstitutional as the tax is on two different aspects of the transaction, namely, the supply of service and import of goods. The rationale for the impugned notifications, according to the Union Government, is to remove the disparity between Indian and foreign shipping lines, as the former are unable to claim input tax credit¹⁴ that forms a part of their transportation costs, since supply of goods was hitherto exempt from service tax. The levy of the integrated tax does not, according to the Union of India, impose an additional cost on importers as the cost paid on inward transportation of goods and import freight services is available to them as ITC.

Under the existing GST regime (presently under challenge), taxability of ocean freight under different situations is tabulated below :

Service Availed	Shipping Company	Legal Provision	Implication
Import	Indian	Section 12(8) of the IGST Act – the place of supply of services shall be the location of the recipient	Transaction  is   liable for tax. Importer can claim the amount paid as tax   as   input   tax credit
Export	Indian	Section 12(8) of the IGST Act – the place of supply of services shall be the location of the recipient.	Transaction is liable for tax. The exporter can get refund of input tax credit used for export.
Import	Foreign	Section 13(9) of the IGST Act – the place of supply of service of transportation of goods shall be place of destination of such goods.	Transaction is liable for tax as the place of supply is India. Tax will be paid under reverse charge and can be claimed as input tax credit.
Export	Foreign	Section    13(9)    of the IGST Act – the place of supply of services of transportation of goods shall be place of destination of such goods.	Since the place of supply will be outside   India,   the transaction   is   not liable for tax.

The Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court held that the impugned notifications are unconstitutional for exceeding the powers conferred by the IGST Act and the CGST Act. The High Court held:

• The importer of goods on a CIF basis is not the recipient of the transport services as Section 2(93) of the CGST Act defines a recipient of services to mean someone who pays consideration for the service, which is the foreign exporter in this case;
• Section 5(3) of the IGST Act enables the Government to stipulate categories of supply, not specify a third-party as a recipient of such supply;
• There is no territorial nexus for taxation since the supply of service of transportation of goods is by a person in a non-taxable territory to another person in a non-taxable territory from a place outside India up to the Indian customs clearance station and this is neither an inter-state nor an intra-state supply;

• Section 2(11) of the IGST Act defines “import of service” to mean the supply of service where the supplier of service is located outside India, the recipient of service is located in India and the place of supply of service is in India;
• In this case, since the goods are transported on a CIF basis, the recipient of service is the foreign exporter who is outside India;
• Section 7(5)(c) of the IGST Act dealing with intra-state supply cannot be read so extensively that it conflates the “supply of goods or services or both in the taxable territory” to “place of supply”;
• Sections 12 and 13 of the IGST Act deal with determining the place of supply.
• Neither of them will apply if both the supplier and recipient of service are based outside India. The mere fact that the service terminates at India does not make the service of supply of transportation to be taking place in India;

• The provisions regarding time of supply, as contemplated in Section 20 of the IGST Act and applicable to Section 13 of the IGST Act dealing with supply of services, are applicable only vis-à-vis the actual recipient of the supply of service, which is the foreign exporter in this case;
• Section 15(1) of the CGST Act enables the determination of the value of the supply, only between the actual supplier and actual recipient of the service;
• Since the importer is not the “recipient” of the service under Section 2(93) of the CGST Act, it will not be in a position to avail ITC under Section 16(1) of the CGST Act; and

• Since the importer pays customs duties on the goods which include the value of ocean freight, the impugned notifications impose double taxation through a delegated legislation, which is impermissible.

Observation and Conclusion of the case

The recommendations of the GST Council are not binding on the Union and States for the following reasons:

• The deletion of Article 279B and the inclusion of Article 279(1) by the Constitution Amendment Act 2016 indicates that the Parliament intended for the recommendations of the GST Council to only have a persuasive value, particularly when interpreted along with the objective of the GST regime to foster cooperative federalism and harmony between the constituent units;
• Neither does Article 279A begin with a non-obstante clause nor does Article 246A state that it is subject to the provisions of Article 279A. The Parliament and the State legislatures possess simultaneous power to legislate on GST. Article 246A does not envisage a repugnancy provision to resolve the inconsistencies between the Central and the State laws on GST. The ‘recommendations’ of the GST Council are the product of a collaborative dialogue involving the Union and States. They are recommendatory in nature. To regard them as binding edicts would disrupt fiscal federalism, where both the Union and the States are conferred equal power to legislate on GST. It is not imperative that one of the federal units must always possess a higher share in the power for the federal units to make decisions. Indian federalism is a dialogue between cooperative and uncooperative federalism where the federal units are at liberty to use different means of persuasion ranging from collaboration to contestation; and

• The Government while exercising its rule-making power under the provisions of the CGST Act and IGST Act is bound by the recommendations of the GST Council. However, that does not mean that all the recommendations of the GST Council made by virtue of the power Article 279A (4) are binding on the legislature’s power to enact primary legislations;

On a conjoint reading of Sections 2(11) and 13(9) of the IGST Act, read with Section 2(93) of the CGST Act, the import of goods by a CIF contract constitutes an “inter-state” supply which can be subject to IGST where the importer of such goods would be the recipient of shipping service;

The IGST Act and the CGST Act define reverse charge and prescribe the entity that is to be taxed for these purposes. The specification of the recipient – in this case the importer – by Notification 10/2017 is only clarificatory. The Government by notification did not specify a taxable person different from the recipient prescribed in Section 5(3) of the IGST Act for the purposes of reverse charge;

Section 5(4) of the IGST Act enables the Central Government to specify a class of registered persons as the recipients, thereby conferring the power of creating a deeming fiction on the delegated legislation;

The impugned levy imposed on the ‘service’ aspect of the transaction is in violation of the principle of ‘composite supply’ enshrined under Section 2(30) read with Section 8 of the CGST Act. Since the Indian importer is liable to pay IGST on the ‘composite supply’, comprising of supply of goods and supply of services of transportation, insurance, etc. in a CIF contract, a separate levy on the Indian importer for the ‘supply of services’ by the shipping line would be in violation of Section 8 of the CGST Act.

For the reasons stated above, the appeals are accordingly dismissed

Recommendation-of-GST-Council-is-not-binding-on-States

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