As per section 2(119) of CGST Act, “Works contract” means a contract for building, construction, fabrication, completion, erection, installation, fitting out, improvement, modification, repair, maintenance, renovation, alteration or commissioning of any immovable property wherein transfer of property in goods (whether as goods or in some other form) is involved in the execution of such contract.
Thus, from the above it can be seen that the term works contract has been restricted to contract for building construction, fabrication etc. of any immovable property only. Any such composite supply undertaken on goods say for example a fabrication or paint job done in automotive body shop will not fall within the definition of term works contract per se under GST. Such contracts would continue to remain composite supplies, but will not be treated as a Works Contract for the purposes of GST.
Para 6(a) of Schedule II of CGST Act explicitly specifies Works Contract as a “Supply of Service” & is accordingly deemed to be a service under the GST law, with the Service Accounting Code(SAC) being 9954.
In simple terms, works contract is a contract for work, where supply of material is incidental to the contract for work. Examples of works contract include laying of pipelines where passing of property in the pipe is incidental to the works contract, erection of towers & testing and commissioning of transmissions lines & setting up a sub-station is a works contract as well.
In other words, if the contract is primarily for supply of materials at prices agreed and the work or service is incidental to the execution of contract, it will be contract for sale. On the other hand, where contract is primarily a contract of work and labour and materials are supplied in execution of such contract, it is a works contract.
A specific case of works contract will be “Plant & Machinery assembled & erected at site” and will accordingly be a supply of service. This follows the principle of marketability test wherein anything can be said to be goods or movable only if it can be taken to the market for sale in the same position without being dismantled or separated.
The general rate of tax on works contract is 18% under the GST provisions.
An important point to be noted here is that works contract is not limited to construction, it also covers all activities relating to plant, machinery or equipment which are immovable.
As per section 17(5) (c) of the CGST Act, 2017, input tax credit shall not be available in respect of the works contract services when supplied for construction of an immovable property (other than plant and machinery) except where it is an input service for further supply of works contract service.
Thus, ITC for works contract can be availed only by one who is in the same line of business and is using such services received for further supply of works contract service. For example a building developer may engage services of a subcontractor for certain portion of the whole work. The subcontractor will charge GST in the tax invoice raised on the main contractor. The main contractor will be entitled to take ITC on the tax invoice raised by his sub-contractor as his output is works contract service. However if the main contractor provides works contract service (other than for plant and machinery) to a company say in the IT business, the ITC of GST paid on the invoice raised by the works contractor will not be available to the IT Company.
Place of Supply in respect of Works Contract
Works Contract under GST would necessarily involve immovable property. In view of the same the place of supply would be governed by Section 12(3) of the IGST Act, 2017, where both the supplier and recipient are located in India. The place of supply would be where the immovable property is located.
In case the immovable property is located outside India, and the supplier as well as recipient both are located in India, the place of supply would be the location of recipient as per proviso to Section 12(3) of the IGST Act, 2017.
As per Section 13(4) of the IGST Act, 2017, in cases where either the Supplier or the Recipient are located outside India, the place of supply shall be the place where the immovable property is located or intended to be located.
Conclusion:
GST aims to put at rest the controversy by defining what will constitute a works contract (applicable for immovable property only), by stating that a works contract will constitute a supply of service and specifying a uniform rate of tax applicable on same value across India.