Exports, Imports & SEZ
Selling outside India, and buying into it
Selling outside India, and buying into it.
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Exports are zero-rated, which is stronger than exempt. Exempt means no tax on the output and no credit on the inputs. Zero-rated means no tax on the output and you still keep the credit – which is why exporters end up with refunds rather than dead credit.
Supplies to a Special Economic Zone unit or developer get the same zero-rated treatment as a physical export, provided the supply is for authorised operations.
Export of services carries conditions that catch people out: the supplier in India, the recipient outside, place of supply outside India, payment received in convertible foreign exchange, and the two parties not merely being establishments of the same person.
Worked example
The billing that quietly stopped being an export
| Indian company bills its UK parent | ₹90,00,000 for the year | Treated as zero-rated export |
| Both are establishments of the same person | Condition five fails | Not an export in law |
| Reclassified as a domestic supply | 18% GST becomes payable | ₹16,20,000, plus interest |
Nothing about the work changed – only the relationship between the two entities mattered. Group structures are exactly where this condition needs checking before the first invoice, not after the first audit.
The mistakes that cost people money
Not theoretical risks — the ones we actually see land on clients’ desks.
Exporting without a live LUT for the current financial year, which makes IGST payable on supplies you intended to zero-rate.
Assuming foreign currency receipt is optional. For services it is a condition, not a formality.
Treating supplies to an SEZ as zero-rated without confirming they are for authorised operations.
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Exports, Imports & SEZ — the complete guide
4 pages covering all 5 provisions, with the plain-language explanation and practice notes for each. Print it, keep it, share it with your accountant.
Every provision on exports, imports & sez
All 5 of them, each with a plain-language explanation and the full legal text.
CGST Rules, 2017 · 4
IGST Act, 2017 · 1
Reading is free. Getting it wrong isn’t.
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