The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs ( CBIC ) has recently issued a Circular regarding the applicability of Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST ) on goods supplied while being deposited in a customs bonded warehouse.
The Circular clarified that integrated tax shall be levied and collected at the time of final clearance of the warehoused goods for home consumption i.e., at the time of filing the ex-bond bill of entry and the value addition accruing at each stage of supply shall form part of the value on which the integrated tax would be payable at the time of clearance of the warehoused goods for home consumption. In other words, the supply of goods before their clearance from the warehouse would not be subject to the levy of integrated tax and the same would be levied and collected only when the warehoused goods are cleared for home consumption from the customs bonded warehouse.
The “transfer/sale of goods while being deposited in a customs bonded warehouse” is a common trade practice whereby the importer files an into-bond bill of entry and stores the goods in a customs bonded warehouse and thereafter, supplies such goods to another person who then files an ex-bond bill of entry for clearing the said goods from the customs bonded warehouse for home consumption.
As per sub-section (2) of section 7 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (IGST Act), the supply of goods imported into the territory of India, till they cross the customs frontiers of India, is treated as a supply of goods in the course of inter-State trade or commerce. The proviso to subsection (1) of section 5 of the IGST Act shifts the procedure for levy to the Customs Tariff Act by providing that the integrated tax on goods imported into India would be levied and collected in accordance with the provisions of section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (CTA). Thus, in case of supply of the warehoused goods, the point of levy would be the point at which the duty is collected under section 12 of the Customs Act, 1962 (Customs Act) which is at the time of clearance of such goods under section 68 of the Customs Act.
Sub-section (8A) has been inserted in section 3 of the CTA vide section 102 of the Finance Act, 2018, with effect from 31st March, 2018, so as to provide that the valuation for the purpose of levy of integrated tax on warehoused imported goods at the time of clearance for home consumption would be either the transaction value or the value as per sub-section (8) of section 3 of the CTA (i.e. valuation done at the time of filing the into-bond bill of entry), whichever is higher.
The Circular would be applicable for supply of warehoused goods, while being deposited in a customs bonded warehouse, on or after the 1st of April, 2018.
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