When is a service an import under GST?
A service is an import under GST when the supplier is located outside India, the recipient is located in India, and the place of supply is in India. All three conditions are required. The Indian recipient pays the integrated tax on reverse charge, unless the Act puts that tax on the supplier.
What are the three conditions?
Section 2(11) of the Integrated GST Act states them. The supplier is outside India. The recipient is in India. The place of supply, under section 13, is in India. A service that fails any one of the three is not an import of services.
For most services supplied to a recipient in India, the place of supply is the location of that recipient. The tax is integrated tax, not a split of central and state tax, because the supplier is outside the states. The rate is the rate of that service. It is not one rate for every import.
Who pays the tax?
The recipient pays, under reverse charge. The foreign supplier does not take an Indian registration for an ordinary import of services. A person who has to pay tax under reverse charge is required to register by section 24, even where the turnover is under the ordinary threshold on the registration page.
The supplier pays in the notified case of online information and database access or retrieval services supplied to a person in India who takes them otherwise than for business. A business recipient of those services remains the person who pays on reverse charge. The tax is reported in the return, on the returns page.
Can the tax be claimed as credit?
Yes, where section 16 is met and the service is used for business. Credit that the Act blocks is not opened because the supplier is foreign. The conditions are on the input-tax-credit page. Some notified services are exempt from the reverse charge, including a government receiving services from its own establishment outside India in the course of its business. An exemption is the notification, not a general rule that imported services are free of tax.
Which supply is not an import?
An Indian firm that builds software for a client outside India is the supplier. That supply is not an import into India. Whether it is an export depends on the export conditions, including the place of supply.
An intermediary service is not automatically an export, and it is not automatically an import. From 30 March 2026 the place of supply of an intermediary service is the recipient’s location. The other export conditions are on the Finance Act, 2026 page.
Frequently asked questions
Four questions cover a sale to a foreign client, the supplier’s registration, the threshold, and an intermediary.
Is an Indian firm selling to a foreign client an import?
No. That is a supply by a person in India. An import needs the supplier to be outside India and the recipient to be in India.
Does the foreign supplier register in India?
Not for an ordinary import of services. The Indian recipient pays on reverse charge. The overseas supplier pays only in the notified case of online services to a person who is not a business recipient.
Does the registration threshold excuse the tax?
No. A person required to pay tax under reverse charge is in the compulsory-registration list in section 24. The ordinary turnover threshold does not remove that liability.
Is every intermediary service an export?
No. From 30 March 2026 the place of supply of an intermediary service is the recipient’s location. An export still needs the other conditions in the Act.
Sources
Import of services is section 2(11) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The recipient pays under reverse charge unless a notified case puts the tax on the supplier.