CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY

1. Short title, extent and commencement

(1) This Act may be called the Central / State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2016. (2) It
extends to the whole of India / State's name.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central or a State Government may, by
notification in the Official Gazette, appoint in this behalf:

Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any
reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a
reference to the coming into force of that provision.

2. Definitions
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(1) "actionable claim" shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 3 of the
Transfer of Property Act, 1882;

(2) "address of delivery" means the address of the recipient of goods and/or
services indicated on the tax invoice issued by a taxable person for delivery of such
goods and/or services;

(3 ) "address on record" means the address of the recipient as available in the

records of the supplier;

(4 ) "adjudicating authority" means any authority competent to pass any order or

decision under this Act, but does not include the Board, the First Appellate Authority and
the Appellate Tribunal;

(5) "agent" means a person who carries on the business of supply or receipt of
goods and/or services on behalf of another, whether disclosed or not and includes a
factor, broker, commission agent, arhatia, del credere agent, intermediary or an
auctioneer or any other mercantile agent, by whatever name called, and whether of the
same description as hereinbefore mentioned or not;
(6) "aggregate turnover" means the aggregate value of all taxable and non-taxable
supplies, exempt supplies and exports of goods and/or services of a person having the
same PAN, to be computed on all India basis and excludes taxes, if any, charged under
the CGST Act, SGST Act and the IGST Act, as the case may be;

Explanation.- Aggregate turnover does not include the value of supplies on which tax is levied on
reverse charge basis and the value of inward supplies.

(7) "agriculture" with all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions,
includes floriculture, horticulture, sericulture, the raising of crops, grass or garden produce and
also grazing, but does not include dairy farming, poultry farming, stock breeding, the mere
cutting of wood or grass, gathering of fruit, raising of man-made
forest or rearing of seedlings or plants;
Explanation.- For the purpose of this clause, the expression 'forest' means the forest to which the
Indian Forest Act, 1927 applies.