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Circular No.38/12/2018
F. No. 20/16/03/2017-GST Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Excise and Customs GST Policy Wing
New Delhi, Dated the $26^{\text{th}}$ March, 2018
To,
The Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners/Principal Commissioners/Commissioners of Central Tax (All)/The Principal Directors General/ Directors General (All)
Madam/Sir,
Subject: Clarification on issues related to Job Work
Various representations have been received regarding the procedures to be followed for sending goods for job work and the related compliance requirements for the principal and the job worker. In view of the difficulties being faced by the taxpayers and to ensure uniformity in the implementation of the provisions of the law across the field formations, the Board, in exercise of its powers conferred under section 168 (1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, (hereinafter referred to as the "CGST Act") hereby clarifies the various issues raised as below:
As per clause (68) of section 2 of the CGST Act, 2017, "job work" means any treatment or process undertaken by a person on goods belonging to another registered person and the expression "job worker" shall be construed accordingly. The registered person on whose goods (inputs or capital goods) job work is performed is called the "Principal" for the purposes of section 143 of the CGST Act. The said section which encapsulates the provisions related to job work, provides that the registered principal may, without payment of tax, send inputs or capital goods to a job worker for job work and, if required, from there subsequently to another job worker and so on. Subsequently, on completion of the job work (by the last job worker), the principal shall either bring back the goods to his place of business or supply (including export) the same directly from the place of business/premises of the job worker within one year in case of inputs or within three years in case of capital goods (except moulds and dies, jigs and fixtures or tools).
It may be noted that the responsibility of keeping proper accounts of the inputs and capital goods sent for job work lies with the principal. Moreover, if the time frame of one year / three years for bringing back or further supplying the inputs / capital goods is not adhered to, the activity of sending the goods for job work shall be deemed to be a supply by the principal on the day when the said inputs / capital goods were sent out by him. Thus, essentially, sending goods for job work is not a supply as such, but it acquires the character of supply only when the inputs/capital goods sent for job work are neither received back by the principal nor supplied further by the principal from the place of business / premises of the job worker within one/three years of being sent out. It may be noted that the responsibility for sending the goods for job work as well as bringing them back or supplying them has been cast on the principal.
With respect to the above legal requirements, various issues have been raised on the following aspects:
Scope/ambit of job work: Doubts have been raised on the scope of job work and whether any inputs, other than the goods provided by the principal, can be used by the job worker for providing the services of job work. It may be noted that the definition of job work, as contained in clause (68) of section 2 of the CGST Act, entails that the job work is a treatment or process undertaken by a person on goods belonging to another registered person. Thus, the job worker is expected to work on the goods sent by the principal and whether the activity is covered within the scope of job work or not would have to be determined on the basis of facts and circumstances of each case. Further, it is clarified that the job worker, in addition to the goods received from the principal, can use his own goods for providing the services of job work.
Requirement of registration for the principal/ job worker: It is important to note that the provisions of section 143 of the CGST Act are applicable to a registered person. Thus, it is only a registered person who can send the goods for job work under the said provisions. It may also be noted that the registered person (principal) is not obligated to follow the said provisions. It is his choice whether or not to avail or not to avail of the benefit of these special provisions.
6.1 Doubts have been raised about the requirement of obtaining registration by job workers when they are located in the same State where the principal is located or when they are located in a State different from that of the principal. It may be noted that the job worker is required to obtain registration only if his aggregate turnover, to be computed on all India basis, in a financial year exceeds the specified threshold limit (i.e. Rs 20 lakhs or Rs. 10 lakhs in case of special category States except Jammu & Kashmir) in case both the principal and the job worker are located in the same State. Where the principal and the job worker are located in different States, the requirement for registration flows from clause (i) of section 24 of the CGST Act which provides for compulsory registration of suppliers making any inter-State supply of services. However, exemption from registration has been granted in case the aggregate turnover of the inter-State supply of taxable services does not exceed Rs 20 lakhs or Rs. 10 lakhs in case of special category States except Jammu & Kashmir in a financial year vide notification No. 10/2017 – Integrated Tax dated 13.10.2017. Therefore, it is clarified that a job worker is required to obtain registration only in cases where his aggregate turnover, to be computed on all India basis, in a financial year exceeds the threshold limit regardless of whether the principal and the job worker are located in the same State or in different States.
/ premises:Doubts have been raised as to whether the principal can supply goods directly from the job worker’s place of business / premises to its end customer and if yes, whether the supply will be regarded as having been made by the principal or by the job worker. It is clarified that the supply of goods by the principal from the place of business / premises of the job worker will be regarded as supply by the principal and not by the job worker as specified in section 143(1)(a) of the CGST Act.