GST treatment of supplies to foreign-going vessels and warehoused goods depends on export rules and Schedule III exclusion.

Supply of stores to a foreign-going vessel anchored in India is not export or zero-rated supply under GST because export requires movement of goods from India to a place outside India, and the place of supply must be outside India; customs duty treatment does not alter that position. Tax is therefore payable under GST or IGST, as applicable, unless the stores are specifically marked for a location outside India. Warehoused goods supplied before clearance for home consumption, however, fall within Schedule III and are neither a supply of goods nor a supply of services, but only to that limited extent.

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Issues: (i) Whether supply of stores to foreign going vessels amounts to export or zero-rated supply under the GST regime; (ii) Whether warehoused goods supplied to the recipient before clearance for home consumption fall outside the scope of supply under Schedule III.

Issue (i): Whether supply of stores to foreign going vessels amounts to export or zero-rated supply under the GST regime

Analysis: Export under the GST law requires movement of goods from India to a place outside India, and the place of supply must be outside India. Stores supplied to a foreign going vessel while it is anchored in India are not, by that fact alone, taken to a place outside India. The customs law may grant an exemption from import duty for such stores in specified circumstances, but that does not convert the transaction into export under the GST law. Unless the stores are specifically marked for a location outside India, the supply remains within India for GST purposes.

Conclusion: The supply of stores to foreign going vessels is not export or zero-rated supply, and tax is payable under the GST law or the IGST law, as applicable, unless the stores are specifically marked for a location outside India.

Issue (ii): Whether warehoused goods supplied to the recipient before clearance for home consumption fall outside the scope of supply under Schedule III

Analysis: Supply of warehoused goods before clearance for home consumption is treated by Schedule III as neither a supply of goods nor a supply of services. That exclusion operates only to the extent the stores supplied to the foreign going vessels are in fact warehoused goods and are supplied before clearance for home consumption.

Conclusion: To the extent the stores are warehoused goods supplied before clearance for home consumption, the transaction is neither a supply of goods nor a supply of services under Schedule III.

Final Conclusion: The ruling rejects the claim that such supplies are generally export or zero-rated supplies, while preserving the Schedule III exclusion only for the limited class of warehoused goods supplied before clearance for home consumption.

Ratio Decidendi: A supply to a vessel located in India does not become export merely because the recipient is a foreign going vessel; export under the GST law requires a supply to a place outside India, while the Schedule III exclusion applies only to warehoused goods supplied before clearance for home consumption.

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