Section 9(5) Notified Services and Their Effective Dates

Section 9 explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.

Section 9(5) is a power, not a charge. What it actually reaches is entirely a matter of the notifications — and those notifications have been amended six times in eight years, each amendment moving liability between the platform and the supplier.

The notified categories are passenger transportation (from 01.07.2017, with the vehicle list widened on 01.01.2022 and then split on 20.10.2023 so that omnibus has its own entry with a company exception), accommodation in hotels, inns, guest houses, clubs, campsites and similar places (from 01.07.2017, except where the supplier is liable for registration under section 22(1)), housekeeping such as plumbing and carpentry (from 22.08.2017, same exception), restaurant service other than at specified premises (from 01.01.2022), and local delivery (from 22.09.2025, by Notification No. 17/2025-CT(Rate) dated 17.09.2025, same exception).

The categories, with their notifications

The two shapes of exception

Look at the pattern. Three entries — accommodation, housekeeping and local delivery — carry the same exception: "except where the person supplying such service through electronic commerce operator is liable for registration under sub-section (1) of section 22."

That exception is a threshold test. A supplier below the section 22(1) threshold has its tax paid by the platform under 9(5); a supplier above the threshold is registered, invoices in its own name, pays its own tax, and the platform merely collects TCS. The design puts the small and unregistered inside the deemed-supplier net and leaves the registered supplier outside it.

The omnibus entry uses a different test entirely — not size, but constitution. Passenger transport by omnibus is a 9(5) supply unless the supplier is a company, "company" taking the meaning in clause (20) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 by the explanation added through Notification No. 17/2021-CT(Rate) as amended by Notification No. 16/2023-CT(Rate).

The restaurant entry uses a third test — the premises. Restaurant service is a 9(5) supply unless it is supplied at specified premises, which is a defined term with its own declaration machinery. Specified premises and the annual declaration →

The compliance matrix

The Handbook reduces the whole chapter to one table, and it is worth carrying:

Cloud kitchens are named expressly, which settles a question that arose early: a kitchen with no dining area supplying only through platforms is supplying restaurant service and is inside the entry.

The definitions borrowed from the Motor Vehicles Act

Notification No. 17/2017-CT(Rate) carries two explanations:

• "Radio taxi" means a taxi including a radio cab, by whatever name called, which is in two-way radio communication with a central control office and is enabled for tracking using GPS or GPRS.
• "Maxicab", "motorcab" and "motor cycle" take their meanings from clauses (22), (25) and (26) of section 2 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Notification No. 17/2021-CT(Rate), effective 01.01.2022, replaced the second explanation to cover "maxicab", "motorcab", motor cycle, motor vehicle and omnibus, referring to clauses (22), (25), (27), (28) and (29) of section 2 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

The widening on 01.01.2022 was substantial. Adding "motor vehicle" as a residual head meant the entry no longer depended on fitting a ride into one of four named vehicle types.

Local delivery: the newest entry

Inserted by Notification No. 17/2025-Central Tax (Rate) dated 17.09.2025, effective 22.09.2025:

"Services by way of local delivery except where the person supplying such services through electronic commerce operator is liable for registration under sub section (1) of section 22 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017."

It comes as one half of a pair. The definition of goods transport agency in clause (ze) of Notification No. 12/2017-CT(Rate) was substituted by Notification No. 15/2025-CT(Rate) of the same date to exclude an ECO by whom, or through whom, services of local delivery are provided.

So the two notifications divide the field. Local delivery through a platform is not GTA reverse charge; it is a section 9(5) supply where the delivery partner is below the registration threshold, and an ordinary TCS supply where the delivery partner is registered. What the GTA carve-out means →

For a delivery platform this is a material change. Payments to a fleet of unregistered riders now generate a deemed-supplier liability payable in cash, not a reverse charge with a credit.

Key takeaways

• Section 9(5) reaches only what is notified; six categories, notified between 2017 and 2025.
• Accommodation, housekeeping and local delivery share a threshold exception — the supplier being liable for registration under section 22(1).
• Omnibus uses a constitution test — the exception is where the supplier is a company.
• Restaurant service uses a premises test — the exception is specified premises.
• Cloud kitchens are expressly inside the restaurant entry.
• Passenger transport widened on 01.01.2022 to include omnibus and any other motor vehicle, then split on 20.10.2023.
• Local delivery entered on 22.09.2025, paired with the removal of ECO local delivery from the GTA definition.

Read next

• Specified Premises: The Declaration That Moves the Liability
• Section 9(5): The Deemed Supplier, and Why It Is Not Reverse Charge
• RCM Entry 1: Who Actually Pays GST on a GTA Freight Bill

Disclaimer: Positions stated as on 5 September 2026, based on section 9(5) of the CGST Act, 2017 and Notification Nos. 17/2017, 23/2017, 17/2021, 16/2023 and 17/2025-Central Tax (Rate), read with the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and section 2(20) of the Companies Act, 2013, as reproduced in the ICAI Handbook on E-Commerce Operators under GST (updated to 15 December 2025).