Contours of ‘Supply’ in GST : Bombay High Court Exemplifies

The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016 [‘Constitution Amendment Act'], paving the way for the transformation of the indirect-tax regime in the India, came into force in September, 2016. The enabling legislations were passed by the Union Parliament and State Legislatures thereafter and the Goods and Services Tax (‘GST') Regime came into force with effect from 01-07-2017. What is noteworthy is that while the essence of GST is ‘supply', as the levy of tax thereunder is on supply of goods or services, the Constitution Amendment Act does not in any manner reflect upon the contours of the expression ‘supply'. Given this vacuum, one would have expected that the dimensions of the expression would be adverted to in the GST legislations. A perusal of the GST legislations, however, belies the hope for the exact dimensions of the expression ‘supply' are not crystalized even thereunder. The relevant provisions of the GST legislations reveal that there is an abject legislative failure to prescribe a specific meaning to the expression ‘supply'. Instead the provisions only appear to expand the undefined scope by way of inclusive enumeration of certain species of supplies. In other words, absent a generic meaning of the expression ‘supply', one is required to be content only with an inclusive meaning of the expression. It is only that a recent decision of the Bombay High Court in the case of Builders Association that the statutory provisions have been addressed to define the seemingly all-pervasive canvass of the expression. An appraisal of this decision, to cull out the facets of the expression ‘supply', forms the core of this article