Definitions

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,ó

1. (a) ìAppellate Assistant Commissionerî means any person appointed to be an Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes under section 3 of this Act;
2. (b) ìAppellate Tribunalî means the Puducherry Value Added Tax Appellate Tribunal appointed under section 44 of this Act;
3. (c) ìassesseeî means a dealer by whom tax is payable either by collecting the same or otherwise;
4. (d) ìassessing authorityî means any officer not below the rank of Assistant Commercial Tax Officer authorised by the Commissioner to make any assessment under this Act;
5. (e) ìassessmentî means determination of business turnover of a dealer in the prescribed manner to ascertain the tax liability under this Act by self-assessment, re-assessment, and assessment by scrutiny and best judgment assessment;
6. (f) ìAssistant Commercial Tax Officerî means any person appointed by the Commissioner by name or by virtue of his office, to exercise the powers of an Assistant Commercial Tax Officer;
7. (g) ìAssistant Commissionerî means any person appointed to be a ëAssistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxesí under section 3 of this Act;
8. (h) ìauthorisedî means authorised by the Commissioner to perform any duties and exercise any powers under this Act;
   • (i) ìbusinessî includes ó
   • (i) any trade, commerce, manufacture, or any adventure or concern in the nature of trade, commerce, manufacture, whether or not such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern is carried on with a motive to make gain or profit and whether or not any profit accrues from such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern; and
   • (ii) any transaction in connection with or incidental or ancillary to such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern;
9. (j) ìcapital goodsî means plant, machinery and equipment used in the business including manufacture of goods;
10. (k) ìcasual traderî means a person who, whether as principal, agent or in any other capacity, undertakes occasional transactions of a business nature involving the buying, selling, supplying or distributing of goods in the Union territory, whether for cash or for deferred payment or for commission, remuneration or other valuable consideration, and who does not reside or has no fixed place of business within the Union Territory;
11. (l) ìCommercial Tax Officerî means any person appointed to be a Commercial Tax Officer under section 3 of this Act;
12. (m) ìCommissionerî means any person appointed to be a ëCommissioner of Commercial Taxesí under section 3 of this Act;
13. (n) ìdealerî means any person who carries on the business of buying, selling, supplying or distributing goods, directly or otherwise, whether for cash or for deferred payment or for commission, remuneration or other valuable consideration, and includesó
    • (i) a company, Hindu undivided family (HUF), partnership firm or other association of persons, whether incorporated or un- incorporated which carries on such business;
    • (ii) a casual trader;
    • (iii) a commission agent, a broker or a del-credere agent or an auctioneer or a factor or any other mercantile agent, by whatever name called and whether of the same description as hereinbefore or not, who carries on the business of buying, selling, supplying or distributing goods on behalf of any principal;
    • (iv) every local branch of a firm or company or association situated outside the Union Territory and a non-resident dealer or an agent of a non-resident dealer;
    • (v) a person who sells goods produced by him by manufacture or otherwise;
    • (vi) a person engaged in the business of transfer, otherwise than in pursuance of a contract, of property in any goods for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;
    • (vii) a person engaged in the business of transfer of property in goods (whether as goods or in some other form) involved in the execution of a works contract;
    • (viii) a person engaged in the business of delivery of goods on hire-purchase or any system of payment by instalments;
    • (ix) a person engaged in the business of transfer of the right to use any goods for any purpose (whether or not for a specified period) for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;
    • (x) a person engaged in the business of supplying by way of or as part of any service or in any other manner whatsoever, of goods, being food or any other article for human consumption or any drink (whether or not intoxicating), where such supply or service is for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;
    • (xi) a society (including a co-operative society), club or firm or an association which, whether or not in the course of business, buys or sells goods from or to its members for cash or for deferred payment or for commission, remuneration or other valuable consideration;
    • (xii) an industrial, commercial, banking, insurance or trading undertaking whether or not of the Central Government or any of the State Governments or of a local authority; and
    • (xiii) a department of the Central Government or any State Government or any Union Territory Administration or a local authority by name of any panchayat, municipality, Development Authority or any autonomous or statutory body including a Port Trust and the like which, whether or not in the course of business, buys, sells, supplies or distributes goods, directly or otherwise, for cash, or for deferred payment, or for commission, remuneration or other valuable consideration;
14. (o) ìDeputy Commercial Tax Officerî means any person appointed by the Commissioner by name or by virtue of his office, to exercise the powers of a Deputy Commercial Tax Officer;
15. (p) ìDeputy Commissionerî means any person appointed to be a ëDeputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxesí under section 3 of this Act;
16. (q) ìdocumentî means title deeds, writing or inscriptions and includes electronic data stored in tape, disc or such other form that furnishes evidence;
17. (r) ìgoodsî means all kinds of movable property (other than newspapers, actionable claims, stocks and shares and securities) and includes livestock, all materials, commodities and articles including the goods (tangible or intangible) and property in goods (whether as goods or in some other form) involved in the execution of a works contract, transfer of right to use or hire-purchase or those goods to be used in the fitting out, improvement or repair of movable property and all growing crops, grass or things attached to or forming part of the land which are agreed to be severed before sale or under a contract of sale; ìGovernmentî means the Administrator of the Union Territory appointed by the President under article 239 of the Constitution;
18. (t) ìGovernment representativeî means any person appointed to be the Government representative under section 3 of this Act and includes an officer authorised by the Commissioner under that section to perform the functions on behalf of the Government in proceedings before the Appellate Tribunal, such asó
    • (i) to prepare and sign applications, appeals and other documents;
    • (ii) to appear, represent, and plead;
    • (iii) to receive notices and other processes; and
    • (iv) to do all other acts connected with such proceedings;
19. (u) ìinputî means goods purchased by a dealer in the course of his business for resale including deemed sales or for use in manufacturing, processing, packing of other goods for sale;
    • (v) ìinput taxî means tax on inputs paid or payable;
20. (w) ìJoint Commissionerî means any person appointed to be a ëJoint Commissioner of Commercial Taxesí under section 3 of this Act;
    • (x) ìmanufactureî includes any activity that brings out a change in an article or articles as a result of some process, treatment, labour and results in transformation into a new and different article so understood in commercial parlance having a distinct name, character, use but does not include any such activity as may be notified by the Government as not manufacture for the purposes of this clause;
21. (y) ìoutputî means goods sold by a dealer;
22. (z) ìoutput taxî in relation to a dealer means the tax charged or chargeable in respect of goods sold by that dealer;
23. (za) ìplace of businessî means any place where a dealer purchases or sells goods and includes warehouses, godowns or other places where a dealer stores his goods, processes, produces or manufactures goods or any other place where business activity takes place including the place where the books of accounts are maintained and kept;
24. (zb) ìprescribedî means prescribed by the rules made under this Act;
25. (zc) ìregistered dealerî means a dealer registered under this Act;
26. (zd) ìrulesî means rules made under this Act;
27. (ze) ìsaleî with all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means every transfer of property in goods (other than by way of mortgage, hypothecation, charge or pledge) by one person to another in the course of business for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration and includesó
    • (i) a transfer, otherwise than in pursuance of a contract, of property in any goods for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;
    • (ii) a transfer of property in goods (whether as goods or in some other form) involved in the execution of a works contract;
    • (iii) a delivery of goods on hire-purchase or any system of payment by instalments;
    • (iv) a transfer of the right to use any goods for any purpose (whether or not for a specified period) for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;
    • (v) a supply of goods by any unincorporated association or body of persons to a member thereof for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;
    • (vi) a supply, by way of or as part of any service or in any other manner whatsoever, of goods, being food or any other article for human consumption or any drink (whether or not intoxicating), where such supply or service, is for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration, and such transfer, delivery or supply of any goods shall be deemed to be a sale of those goods by the person making the transfer, delivery or supply and a purchase of those goods by the person to whom such transfer, delivery or supply is made;
    • (vii) every transfer of property in goods, by a department of the Central Government or any State Government or Union Territory Administration or a local authority by name of any panchayat, municipality, Development Authority or any autonomous or statutory body including a Port Trust and the like, for cash or for deferred payment or other valuable consideration, whether or not in the course of business. Explanation-I.óNotwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, two independent sales or purchases shall, for the purpose of this Act, be deemed to have taken placeñ
28. (a) when the goods are transferred from a principal to his selling agent and from the selling agent to the purchaser;
29. (b) when the goods are transferred from the seller to a buying agent and from the buying agent to his principal, if in either case the agent is foundó

1. (1) to have sold the goods at one rate and to have passed on the sale proceeds to his principal at another rate; or
2. (2) to have purchased the goods at one rate and to have passed the same on to his principal at another rate; or
3. (3) not to have accounted to his principal for the entire collections or deductions made by him in the sales or purchases effected by him on behalf of his principal; or
4. (4) to have acted for a fictitious or non-existent principal. Explanation ñII.ó The sale or purchase of goods shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to have taken place in the Union Territory, wherever the contract of sale or purchase might have been made, if the goods are within the Union Territoryó
   • (a) in the case of specific or ascertained goods, at the time the contract of sale or purchase is made, and
   • (b) in the case of unascertained or future goods at the time of their appropriation to the contract of sale or purchase by the seller or by the purchaser, whether the assent of the other party is prior or subsequent to such appropriation;
   • (zf) ìScheduleî means the Schedules appended to this Act;
   • (zg) ìSecretaryî means the Secretary to the Government of Puducherry in-charge of Commercial Taxes;
   • (zh) ìspecial economic zone unitî means a unit established in the special economic zone as notified under the proviso to sub-section
5. (4) of section 3 and sub-section
6. (1) of section 4 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 and under section 76-A of the Customs Act, 1962 and includes units established under the 100 per cent export oriented scheme, export processing zone scheme, electronic hardware technology park scheme or software technology park scheme, as framed under Export and Import Policy, as formulated under section 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 and as amended from time to time; Explanation.ó For the purposes of this clause, the expression ìSpecial Economic Zone Unitî will also include a ìCo-Developerî and a ìDeveloperî as defined respectively in clauses
   • (f) and
   • (g) of section 2 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005.
   • (zi) ìtaxî means value added tax, and includes any other tax chargeable under this Act;
   • (zj) ìtax invoiceî means a document of sale issued by a dealer to a buyer at the time of sale describing the goods sold, the quantity, value and tax collected thereon and such other information as may be prescribed;
   • (zk) ìtax periodî means a calendar month;
   • (zl) ìtaxable turnoverî means the turnover on which a dealer shall be liable to pay tax as determined after making such deductions from his total turnover and in such manner as may be prescribed;
   • (zm) ìtotal turnoverî means the aggregate turnover in all goods of a dealer at all places of business in the Union Territory, whether or not the whole or any portion of such turnover is liable to tax;
   • (zn) ìturnoverî means the aggregate amount for which goods are bought or sold or delivered or supplied or otherwise disposed of in any of the ways referred to in clause (ze), by a dealer either directly or through another, on his own account or on account of others, whether for cash or for deferred payment or other valuable consideration, provided that the proceeds of the sale by a person of agricultural or horticultural produce, other than tea grown within the Union Territory by himself on any land in which he has an interest whether as owner, usufructuary mortgagee, tenant or otherwise shall be excluded from his turnover. Explanation-I.óThe expression ìagricultural or horticultural produceî shall not include such produce as has been subjected to any physical, chemical or other process for being made fit for consumption, save mere cleaning, grading, sorting or drying. Explanation-II.óSubject to such conditions and restrictions, if any, as may be prescribed in this behalfó
   • (a) the amount for which goods are sold shall include any sums charged for anything done by the dealer in respect of the goods sold at the time of, or before the delivery thereof;
   • (b) any cash or other discount on the price allowed, in respect of any sale and any amount refunded in respect of articles returned by customers shall not be included in the turnover; and Explanation-III.ó ëëTurnoveríí in relation to the transfer of property in goods (whether as goods or in some other form) involved in execution of works contract includes such amount as is arrived at by deducting from the amount of valuable consideration paid or payable to a person for execution of such works contract, the amount representing labour and other charges incurred and profit accrued not in connection with transfer of property in goods for such execution;
   • (zo) ìUnion Territoryî means the Union Territory of Puducherry;
   • (zp) ìworks contractî includes any agreement to carrying out for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration, the building, construction, manufacture, processing, fabrication, erection, installation, fitting out, improvement, modification, repair or commissioning, of any movable or immovable property;
   • (zq) ìyearî means the financial year; and
   • (zr) ìzero rated transactionî means a transaction of sale of goods on which no tax is chargeable but credit for the input tax related to such sales is allowable.