TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (1) TMI 497
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....7-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28th June, 2017 inter alia exempts the Services by way of transportation of goods by inland waterways. Inland waterways have been defined in the same notification to mean as "national waterways as defined in clause(h) of section 2 of Inland Water Ways Authority of India Act, 1985 (82 of 1985) or other waterway on any inland water, as defined in clause (b) of Section 2 of the Inland Vessels Act, 1917. 2.1. The applicant has further submitted that National waterways is as defined in clause (h) of section 2 of the Inland Water Ways Authority of India Act, 1985 or (the inland waterway declared by section 2 of the National Waterway (Allahabad-Haldias Stretch of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghli River) Act,1982). 2.2 O....
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.... areas falling within the State (Gujarat), and, therefore, are considered as inland waterways for the purpose of 2nd part of definition prescribed in clause (zi) of para 2 of the Notification No.9/2017-Integrated (Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 read with Clause (b)(i) of Section 2 in the Inland Vessels Act, 1917 and consequently, the services provided for transportation of goods between Magdalla Port and Anchoring point of Mother Vessel are exempt from GST as per the Notification No. 09/2017-Integrated Tax (Rate). 5. In view of the above, the applicant has put forward the following questions on which advance ruling is required: 1. "Whether service of transportation of goods from Magdalla Port, Surat to its General Lighterage Area o....
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....transportation falls in the definition of 'Inland waterways'? We find that Clause (b) of Entry No.18 of the Notification No.12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28th June, 2017 inter alia exempts the Services by way of transportation of goods by inland waterways. Further, clause (zi) of said Notification defines the "inland waterways" as under: ""inland waterways" means national waterways as defined in clause(h) of section 2 of the Inland Water Ways Authority of India Act, 1985 (82 of 1985) or other waterway on any inland water, as defined in clause (b) of Section 2 of the Inland Vessels Act, 1917 (1 of 1917);" 8.1 Thus, from the above, it can be derived that the "inland waterways" comprises of: (i) national waterways, a....
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....rways Authority of India Act, 1985, now reads as under: (h) "national waterways" means the inland waterway declared by section 2 of the National Waterways Act,2016, to be a national waterway. Explanation.-If Parliament declares by law any other waterway to be a national waterway, then from the date on which such declaration takes effect, such other waterway- (i) shall also be deemed to be a national waterway within the meaning of this clause; and (ii) the provisions of this Act shall, with necessary modifications (including modification for construing any reference to the commencement of this Act as a reference to the date aforesaid), apply to such national waterway;' Section 2 of the National Waterway....
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....limit of the National Waterway 100-Tapi River as declared vide the National Waterways Act, 2016. 9.4 Now, we come to the definition of the "Other waterway on any inland water". Clause (b) of Section 2 of the Inland Vessels Act, 1917, defines "Other waterway on any inland water", as below: (b) "inland water" means- i. any canal, river, lake or other navigable water within a State, ii. any area of any tidal water deemed to be the inland water as defined by the Central Government under section 70; iii. waters declared by the Central Government to be smooth and partially smooth waters under clause (41) of Section 3 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (44 of 1958); 9.5 The 1st category of the term "inland....
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....ghter vessel from Magdalla Port, Surat to its General Lighterage Area of Magdalla Port does not get covered in the definition of 'other waterway on any inland water', as defined under Clause (b) of Section 2 of the Inland Vessels Act, 1917. 10. In view of the above, we conclude that the service of transportation of goods in barrages from mother vessel to daughter vessel from Magdalla Port, Surat to its General Lighterage Area of Magdalla Port is neither covered in the definition of 'national waterways', as defined in Clause (h) of section 2 of the Inland Water Ways Authority of India Act, 1985 nor covered in the definition of 'other waterway on any inland water', as defined under Clause (b) of Section 2 of the Inland Vessels Act, 1917. C....