“securities” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (h) of section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956;
Section 2(h) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 provides an inclusive definition to the term “securities”, listing the following—
(i) shares, scrips, stocks, bonds, debentures, debenture stock or other marketable securities of a like nature in or of any incorporated company or other body corporate;
(ia) derivative;
(ib) units or any other instrument issued by any collective investment scheme to the investors in such schemes;
(ic) security receipt as defined in clause (zg) of section 2 of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002;
(id) units or any other such instrument issued to the investors under any mutual fund scheme;
(ii) Government securities;
(iia) such other instruments as may be declared by the Central Government to be securities; and
(iib) rights or interest in securities.
Securities are neither treated as goods nor as services, by way of a specific exclusion in the respective definitions. For this reason, ‘securities’ would not be included in the meaning of ‘non-taxable supplies’ which are in turn included within the meaning of ‘exempt supplies’. Therefore, for the limited purpose of restricting input tax credits, the meaning of exempt supplies would include ‘securities’, and therefore, input tax credit attributable to transactions in securities would be liable for reversal