关于代金券商品及服务税（GST）条款适用性的澄清 | 2024年12月31日发布的第243/37/2024-GST号通告

关于代金券的商品及服务税（GST）条款适用性一直以来都是诉讼焦点，GST官员对此持有不同意见，导致了模糊性和法律纠纷。业界目前对于代金券的应税性存在诸多疑问，例如：

1. whether transactions in vouchers are considered a supply of goods or services;
2. whether GST is leviable on the trading of vouchers by distributors or sub-distributors;
3. Is GST applicable to unredeemed vouchers (breakage)?

为解决工商业面临的挑战，印度中央间接税与关税委员会（CBIC）于2024年12月31日发布了第243/37/2024-GST号通函，针对GST条款在代金券上的适用性问题进行了说明，具体澄清如下：

1. Do “transactions in vouchers” fall under the supply of goods and/or services category?

• 《2017年中央商品及服务税法》（CGST Act, 2017）第2(118)条对“代金券”的定义如下：

“voucher” means an instrument where there is an obligation to accept it as consideration or part consideration for a supply of goods or services or both and where the goods or services or both to be supplied or the identities of their potential suppliers are either indicated on the instrument itself or in related documentation, including the terms and conditions of use of such instrument.”

• 据此，根据《CGST法》第2(118)条，“代金券”类似于支付工具，其要求供应商必须接受该代金券作为商品或服务供应的对价或部分对价。

Read Also: Clarification on Place of Supply of Online Services Supplied to Unregistered Recipients

1. 代金券属于“货币”的定义范畴

• The issuance of payment instruments, including pre-paid instruments, is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in terms of the Payment and Settlement Act, 2007.
• Pre-paid instruments (PPIs) are payment instruments that facilitate the purchase of goods or services against the value stored on such instruments.
• The pre-paid instruments can be issued as cards, wallets, and any such form/ instrument that can be used to access the PPI and to use the amount therein.
• Section 2(75) of CGST Act, 2017 defines “Money”, which includes an instrument recognized by the RBI which is used as a consideration to settle an obligation.
• Therefore, as per the combined reading of the definition of “Voucher” and “Money” given under the CGST Act, 2017, and the description of “pre-paid instruments” given by RBI, where the voucher is covered as a pre-paid instrument recognized by the RBI and is used as a consideration to settle an obligation then the voucher will fall under the definition of “money”.
• “Money” is excluded from the definition of goods and services as given under GST law.
• Therefore, the transactions in vouchers would be considered neither as a supply of goods nor as a supply of services

2. 代金券属于“可诉权利”

• Where vouchers are not covered as a pre-paid instrument recognized by RBI and therefore, the same cannot be treated as money.
• However, the voucher will be like an obligation on the supplier to receive it as consideration or part consideration and assure the voucher holder to claim certain goods or services against such voucher.
• In such cases, the voucher can be considered as an "actionable claim" within the meaning of section 2(1) of the CGST Act.
• As per entry 6 of Schedule III of the CGST Act, an activity or transaction of actionable claims shall be treated neither as a "supply of goods" nor as a "supply of services”.
• Vouchers are covered under entry 6 of Schedule III of the CGST Act as actionable claims.
• Therefore, even in such a case, transactions in vouchers would be treated neither as a "supply of goods" nor as a "supply of services".

结论：因此，无论代金券是否为印度储备银行（RBI）认可的预付支付工具（PPI），代金券本身的交易既不能被视为商品供应，也不能被视为服务供应。然而，作为代金券对价或部分对价所购买的底层商品或服务，可能需要缴纳GST。

2. What would be the GST treatment of transactions in vouchers by distributors/sub-distributors/ agents etc.?

代金券的分发通常采用以下两种模式：

1. Where vouchers are distributed through the distributors/ sub-distributors/ dealers on a Principal-to-Principal (P2P) basis.
2. Where vouchers are distributed using agents/ distributors/ sub-distributors on a commission/ fee basis.

2.1 代金券以委托人对委托人（P2P）模式分发：

• In such cases, the distributor purchases a voucher from the voucher issuer at a discounted rate and subsequently sells the same to the sub-distributors, corporates, or end customers and generates revenue through a trading margin, i.e, the difference between the acquisition cost and the selling price of the vouchers.
• As per section 9 (1) of the CGST Act, GST is chargeable on the supply of goods or services.
• The transaction in vouchers is neither a supply of goods nor a supply of services, therefore, pure trading of vouchers in this case would not constitute either a supply of goods or a supply of services.
• Accordingly, no GST shall be leviable on the trading of vouchers.

2.2 代金券以佣金/费用模式分发：

• In such a scenario, the transactions between the voucher issuer and the distributors/ sub-distributors/ agents are on a principal-agency basis.
• These arrangements specify a set of obligations on agents such as marketing & promotion and other related support activities for the distribution of vouchers against a commission.
• The distributors or sub-distributors do not own the vouchers and only act as agents of the voucher issuer.
• In such cases, GST would be payable by such distributor or sub-distributor acting on the commission or fee as a supply of services to the voucher issuer.

3. What would be GST treatment of additional services such as advertisement, co-branding, etc?

There may be cases where additional services such as advertisement, co-branding, etc are provided by any person to the voucher issuer against a service fee. In such a case, charges for the supply of such additional services to the voucher issuer would be liable to GST at the applicable rate in the hands of the said service provider.

4. What would be the GST treatment of unredeemed vouchers (breakage)?

The business generally makes adjustments to unredeemed vouchers in their statement of income. The value of such unredeemed vouchers accounted for in the statement of income is called breakage. 

The ambiguities is whether the amount attributed to the unredeemed voucher(breakage) can be considered as “the monetary value of any act or forbearance, in respect of, in response to, or for the inducement of, the supply of goods or services or both, whether by the recipient or by any other person”.

As per section 9 (1) of the CGST Act, GST is leviable only on the supply of goods or services. In the case of breakage, there is no redemption of the voucher and there is no supply of underlying goods or services. Therefore, there is no supply of goods or services on account of such unredeemed vouchers (breakage). Accordingly, such an amount attributable to unredeemed vouchers (breakage) would not be taxable as per the provisions of section 9(1) of the CGST Act.

Further, Circular No. 178/10/2022-GST dated 03.08.2022 clarifies that an agreement to do or refrain from an act should not be presumed to exist and that there must be an express or implied agreement for a taxable supply to exist. The amount attributable to non-redemption of the voucher (breakage) would not constitute a “monetary value of any act or forbearance, in respect of, in response to, or for the inducement of, the supply of goods or services or both, whether by the recipient or by any other person”. Therefore, no GST appears to be payable on such an amount attributable to non-redemption of the voucher (breakage).

5. Conclusion

Clarification is a welcome move by the industry as it will help in clarifying the applicability of GST provisions on the issuance of vouchers. Clarification that no GST applies on the supply of vouchers on principal to principal basis will bring relief to the industry and GST on the commission fee of the sub-distributors or agents will bring clarity among GST officials and the Industry.