Schedule III – Activities which shall be treated neither as a supply of goods nor a supply of services
Section Schedule III, CGST Act
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Amendment history
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In one line
Schedule III is the ‘negative list’ – activities that are NEITHER a supply of goods nor services, so outside GST: services by an employee to the employer, court/tribunal services, functions of MPs/MLAs and constitutional post-holders, funeral/burial services, sale of land and (post-completion) sale of building, actionable claims other than specified betting/gambling/lottery, high-seas sales, and supply of warehoused goods before home-consumption clearance.
What this means in practice
The parts that actually decide cases — the things a practitioner checks first.
Paragraph 6 excludes SPECIFIED actionable claims – betting, casinos, gambling, horse racing, lottery and online money gaming – from the negative list, so those are taxable; every other actionable claim stays outside GST. That carve-out came in with effect from 01-10-2023.
Paragraphs 7 and 8 keep high-seas sales, and supply of warehoused goods before clearance for home consumption, outside GST – retrospectively from 01-07-2017 by the Finance Act 2023.
Paragraph 8(aa) covers supplies within a Special Economic Zone or Free Trade Warehousing Zone before clearance to the Domestic Tariff Area.
The apportionment of co-insurance premium by the lead insurer, and the ceding or reinsurance commission deducted by the insurer, were placed outside GST with effect from 01-11-2024.
Employee services to the employer are outside GST – which is why the secondment question turns on whether an employment relationship genuinely exists.
Questions people actually ask
Real questions we get on this provision, answered straight.
Is a director’s remuneration taxable?+
Salary to a whole-time or executive director in an employer-employee relationship is outside GST under Schedule III. Sitting fees and remuneration to a non-executive or independent director are not – those are taxable under reverse charge in the company’s hands.
The exact words of the law
3,422 characters, uneditedReproduced from the CBIC text. We explain it above — but you should always be able to read it yourself.
Read the full provision+
(a) the functions performed by the Members of Parliament, Members of State Legislature, Members of Panchayats, Members of Municipalities and Members of other local authorities;
(b) the duties performed by any person who holds any post in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution in that capacity; or
(c) the duties performed by any person as a Chairperson or a Member or a Director in a body established by the Central Government or a State Government or local authority and who is not deemed as an employee before the commencement of this clause. 4. Services of funeral, burial, crematorium or mortuary including transportation of the deceased. 5. Sale of land and, subject to clause
(b) of paragraph 5 of Schedule II , sale of building. 6. Actionable claims, other than 3 [Specified actionable claims]. * 7. 1 [Supply of goods from a place in the non-taxable territory to another place in the non-taxable territory without such goods entering into India. * 8.
(a) Supply of warehoused goods to any person before clearance for home consumption; 5 [(aa) Supply of goods warehoused in a Special Economic Zone or in a Free Trade Warehousing Zone to any person before clearance for exports or to the Domestic Tariff Area;]
(b) Supply of goods by the consignee to any other person, by endorsement of documents of title to the goods, after the goods have been dispatched from the port of origin located outside India but before clearance for home consumption.] 4 [9. Activity of apportionment of co-insurance premium by the lead insurer to the co-insurer for the insurance services jointly supplied by the lead insurer and the co-insurer to the insured in co-insurance agreements, subject to the condition that the lead insurer pays the central tax, the State tax, the Union territory tax and the integrated tax on the entire amount of premium paid by the insured. 10. Services by insurer to the reinsurer for which ceding commission or the reinsurance commission is deducted from reinsurance premium paid by the insurer to the reinsurer, subject to the condition that the central tax, the State tax, the Union territory tax and the integrated tax is paid by the reinsurer on the gross reinsurance premium payable by the insurer to the reinsurer, inclusive of the said ceding commission or the reinsurance commission.] 2 [ Explanation 1. -For the purposes of paragraph 2, the term "court" includes District Court, High Court and Supreme Court. *1 [ Explanation 2 .- For the purposes of 5 [clause
(a) of] paragraph 8, the expression " warehoused goods " shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Customs Act, 1962 (50 of 1962).] 5 [Explanation 3.] ––For the purposes of clause (aa) of paragraph 8, the expressions “Special Economic Zone”, “Free Trade Warehousing Zone” and “Domestic Tariff Area” shall have the same meanings respectively as assigned to them in section 2 of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005. * Retrospective exemption to certain activities and transactions vide s. 159 of The Finance Act 2023 (No. 8 of 2023). Brought into force w.e.f. 01st July, 2017.
What changed, and when
The amendment trail, newest first — because the version that applies to your case depends on the period.
2025-10-01 · Inserted
Inserted (w.e.f. 01.10.2025) by section 133 of the Finance (No. 7) Act, 2025 .
2024-08-16 · Insertedbyse
Inserted by section 149 of The Finance Act (No. 2) Act, 2024 No. 15 of 2024 dated 16.08.2024 .
2019-02-01 · Insertedbys
Inserted by s.32 of The Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018 (No. 31 of 2018) – Brought into force w.e.f. 01st February, 2019. 2. Re-numbered by s.32 of The Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018 (No. 31 of 2018) – Brought into force w.e.f. 01st February, 2019. 3. Subst
Where this comes from
Text reproduced from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, as available on 2026-09-05. The explanation and practice notes above are GSTZone’s own, written for this hub. If you spot anything out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it — this hub is checked daily against CBIC.
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