“The Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, specify categories of services the tax on intra-State supplies of which shall be paid by the electronic commerce operator if such services are supplied through it, and all the provisions of this Act shall apply to such electronic commerce operator as if he is the supplier liable for paying the tax in relation to the supply of such services:

Provided that where an electronic commerce operator does not have a physical presence in the taxable territory, any person representing such electronic commerce operator for any purpose in the taxable territory shall be liable to pay tax:

Provided further that where an electronic commerce operator does not have a physical presence in the taxable territory and also he does not have a representative in the said territory, such electronic commerce operator shall appoint a person in the taxable territory for the purpose of paying tax and such person shall be liable to pay tax.”

Under this provision, it is required to get the service notified through a Notification to include a service provided through an e-commerce operator under the ambit of taxation where tax shall be payable under Reverse Charge. The e-commerce operator assumes the tax liability in the place of the actual service provider, but only for the specific categories notified by the government.

Section 52 of the CGST Act also deals with the collection of tax by e-commerce operators not being an agent, but it is quite distinct from section 9(5) of the Act. Section 52 deals with the Tax collected at source (TCS) – it requires the operators to collect the tax at the rate of 1% [if IGST], 0.5% each for CGST and SGST of the net valuation of taxable supplies made through their platform.

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