The provisions of section 123 of the Finance Act, 2021 shall come into force

CBIC vide Notification No. 27/2023- Central Tax dated July 31, 2023, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (2) of Section 1 of the Finance Act, 2021 (13 of 2021), appoints October 01, 2023, as the date on which the provisions of section 123 of the said Act shall come into force.

Accordingly, in section 16 of the IGST Act, in sub-section (1), in clause (b), after the words "supply of goods or services or both", the words "for authorised operations" shall be inserted;

Further, for sub-section (3), the following sub-sections shall be substituted.

"(3) A registered person making zero rated supply shall be eligible to claim refund of  unutilised input tax credit on supply of goods or services or both, without payment of  integrated tax, under bond or Letter of Undertaking, in accordance with the provisions of section 54 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act or the rules made thereunder,  subject to such conditions, safeguards and procedure as may be prescribed:

Provided that the registered person making zero rated supply of goods shall, in case of  non-realisation of sale proceeds, be liable to deposit the refund so received under this  sub-section along with the applicable interest under section 50 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act within thirty days after the expiry of the time limit prescribed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999.) for receipt of foreign exchange remittances, in such manner as may be prescribed.

(4) The Government may, on the recommendation of the Council, and subject to such  conditions, safeguards and procedures, by notification, specify

(i) a class of persons who may make zero rated supply on payment of integrated tax and claim refund of the tax so paid;

(ii) a class of goods or services which may be exported on payment of integrated tax and the supplier of such goods or services may claim the refund of tax so paid."

Section 16 of the IGST Act, before the amendment, is read as-

"(3) A registered person making zero rated supply shall be eligible to claim refund under either of the following options, namely:

(a) he may supply goods or services or both under bond or Letter of Undertaking, subject to such conditions, safeguards and procedure as may be prescribed, without payment of integrated tax and claim refund of unutilised input tax credit; or

(b) he may supply goods or services or both, subject to such conditions, safeguards and procedure as may be prescribed, on payment of integrated tax and claim refund of such tax paid on goods or services or both supplied, in accordance with the provisions of section 54 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act or the rules made thereunder."

The provisions of sections 137 to 162 of the Finance Act, 2023 (8 of 2023) shall come into force

The CBIC has notified Notification No. 28/2023- Central Tax dated July 31, 2023 to appoint the date on which the provisions of sections 137 to 162 of the Finance Act, 2023 (8 of 2023) shall come into force.

The Central Government has appointed the 1st day of October, 2023, as the date on which the provisions of sections 137 to 162 (except sections 149 to 154) of the said Act shall come into force.

Provisions that will come into effect from October 01, 2023 - Central Goods and Service Tax

Section 137:    Amendment of section 10.
Section 138:    Amendment of section 16.
Section 139:    Amendment of section 17.
Section 140:    Amendment of section 23.
Section 141:    Amendment of section 30.
Section 142:    Amendment of section 37.
Section 143:    Amendment of section 39.
Section 144:    Amendment of section 44.
Section 145:    Amendment of section 52.
Section 146:    Amendment of section 54.
Section 147:    Amendment of section 56.
Section 148:    Amendment of section 62.
Section 155:    Amendment of section 122.
Section 156:    Amendment of section 132.
Section 157:    Amendment of section 138.
Section 158:    Insertion of new section 158A.
Section 159:    Retrospective exemption to certain activities and transactions in Schedule III to the Central Goods and Services Tax Act.

Provisions that will come into effect from October 01, 2023 - Integrated Goods and Services Tax

Section 160:    Amendment of section 2.
Section 161:    Amendment of section 12.
Section 162:    Amendment of section 13.

Further, The Central Government has appointed the 1st day of August, 2023, as the date on which the provisions of sections 149 to 154 of the said Act shall come into force.

Provisions that will come into effect from August 01, 2023 - Central Goods and Service Tax

Section 149:    Substitution of section 109.
Section 150:    Substitution of new section for section 110.
Section 151:    Substitution of new section for section 114.
Section 152:    Amendment of section 117.
Section 153:    Amendment of section 118.
Section 154:    Amendment of section 119.

Special procedure for filing appeal against the order rejecting transitional credit

The CBIC has notified Notification No. 29/2023-Central Tax dated July 31st, 2023 for the special procedure which shall be followed by a registered person or an officer who intends to file an appeal against the order passed by the proper officer under section 73 or 74 of the CGST Act in accordance with Circular No. 182/14/2022-GST dated November 10, 2022 pursuant to the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India v/s Filco Trade Centre Pvt. Ltd.

It has been notified that an appeal against the order shall be made in duplicate in the Form appended to this notification at ANNEXURE-1 and shall be presented manually before the Appellate Authority within the time specified in subsection (1) of section 107 or sub-section (2) of section 107 of the said Act, as the case may be, and such time shall be computed from the date of issuance of this notification or the date of the said order, whichever is later:

Provided that any appeal against the order filed in accordance with the provisions of section 107 of the said Act with the Appellate Authority before the issuance of this notification, shall be deemed to have been filed in accordance with this notification.

The appellant shall not be required to deposit any amount as referred to in sub-section (6) of section 107 of the said Act as a pre-condition for filing an appeal against the said order.

An appeal filed under this notification shall be accompanied by relevant documents including a selfcertified copy of the order and such appeal and relevant documents shall be signed by the person specified in subrule (2) of rule 26 of Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017.

Upon receipt of the appeal which fulfills all the requirements as provided in this notification, an acknowledgement, indicating the appeal number, shall be issued manually in FORM GST APL-02 by the Appellate Authority and the appeal shall be treated as filed only when the aforesaid acknowledgement is issued.

Upon receipt of the appeal which fulfills all the requirements as provided in this notification, an acknowledgement, indicating the appeal number, shall be issued manually in FORM GST APL-02 by the Appellate Authority or an officer authorised by him in this behalf and the appeal shall be treated as filed only when the aforesaid acknowledgement is issued.

Special procedure for persons engaged in manufacturing of Pan Masala & Tobacco products

The CBIC has notified Notification No. 30/2023-Central Tax dated July 31st, 2023 for special procedure to be followed by registered persons engaged in manufacturing of Pan Masala & Tobacco products along with additional records which shall be maintained by the registered persons manufacturing these goods.

It is provided that all the existing registered persons engaged in manufacturing of these goods shall furnish the details of packing machines being used for filling and packing of pouches or containers in FORM SRM-I, within 30 days of issuance of this notification, electronically on the common portal.
Every registered person engaged in manufacturing of goods mentioned in Schedule shall keep a daily record of inputs being procured and utilized in quantity and value terms along with the details of waste generated as well as the daily record of reading of electricity meters and generator set meters in a format as specified in FORM SRM-IIIA in each place of business.

Further, the said registered person shall also keep a daily shift-wise record of machine-wise production, product-wise and brand-wise details of clearance in quantity and value terms in a format as specified in FORM SRM-IIIB in each place of business.

They shall also submit a special statement for each month in FORM SRM-IV on the common portal, on or before the tenth day of the month succeeding such month.

Biometric based authentication for GST registration is mandatory in State of Puducherry

The CBIC has issued Notification No. 31/2023-Central Tax dated July 31st, 2023 to provide that proviso to Rule 8(4A) will be applicable on State of Puducherry and now biometric based Aadhar authentication for GST registration is mandatory in the State of Puducherry.

CBIC exempts filing of annual return for taxpayers having aggregate turnover in FY 2022-23 up to 2 crores rupees

The CBIC has issued Notification No. 32/2023-Central Tax dated July 31st, 2023 to exempt the registered persons whose aggregate turnover in the financial year 2022-23 is up to two crore rupees, from filing annual return.

"Account Aggregator" under GST shall be same as defined in the NBFC- Account Aggregator (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2016

The CBIC has issued Notification No. 33/2023-Central Tax dated July 31st, 2023 to notify "Account Aggregator" as the systems with which information may be shared by the common portal based on consent under Section 158A of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017).

This notification shall come into force with effect from the 1st October, 2023.

For the purpose of this notification, "Account Aggregator" means a non-financial banking company which undertakes the business of an Account Aggregator in accordance with the policy directions issued by the Reserve Bank of India under section 45JA of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934) and defined as such in the Non-Banking Financial Company - Account Aggregator (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2016.

Conditions for unregistered person making supplies of goods through an E-Commerce Operator

The CBIC has issued Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax dated July 31st, 2023 to exempt dealers from taking GST registration whose turnover does not exceed the threshold limit of registration and making supplies of goods through an electronic commerce operators subject to certain conditions such as -

(i) such persons shall not make any inter-State supply of goods;

(ii) such persons shall not make supply of goods through electronic commerce operator in more than one State or Union territory;

(iii) such persons shall be required to have a Permanent Account Number issued under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961);

(iv) such persons shall, before making any supply of goods through electronic commerce operator, declare on the common portal their Permanent Account Number issued under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), address of their place of business and the State or Union territory in which such persons seek to make such supply, which shall be subjected to validation on the common portal;

(v) such persons have been granted an enrolment number on the common portal on successful validation of the Permanent Account Number declared as per clause (iv);

(vi) such persons shall not be granted more than one enrolment number in a State or Union territory;

(vii) no supply of goods shall be made by such persons through electronic commerce operator unless such persons have been granted an enrolment number on the common portal; and

This notification shall come into force with effect from 1st October, 2023.

Common adjudicating authority for adjudicating the show cause notices

CBIC has issued Notification No. 35/2023 - Central Tax dated July 31, 2023, to appoint Joint or Additional Commissioner of Central Tax, Bengaluru South Central Excise and GST Commissionerate as authority to exercise the powers and discharge the duties conferred or imposed on specified in respect of specified notices issued to 'BSH Household Appliances Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd' with distinct GSTINs in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai for the purpose of adjudication of these notices.

Goods or services which may be exported on payment of integrated tax and on which the supplier of such goods or services may claim the refund of tax so paid

The CBIC has issued Notification No. 01/2023-Integrated Tax dated July 31st, 2023 to notify all goods or services (except the goods specified in the notification) as the class of goods or services which may be exported on payment of integrated tax and on which the supplier of such goods or services may claim the refund of tax so paid.

This notification shall come into force with effect from 1st October, 2023.