Table of Contents
1. What is the full form of OIDAR?
- OIDAR stands for Online Information Database Access and Retrieval services.
2. What do you mean by OIDAR Service?
- It is a category of services provided through internet, without having any physical interface with the supplier of such services.
3. Examples of OIDAR Services:
- Advertising on the internet
- Providing cloud services
- Provision of e-books, movie, music, software and other intangibles through telecommunication networks or internet.
- Providing data or information, retrievable or otherwise, to any person in electronic form through a computer network.
- online supplies of digital content (movies, television shows, music and the like
- Digital data storage.
- Online gaming.
4. What is the place of supply for OIDAR services?
- Place of supply – Location of recipient of service
- Liability to pay GST
| Location of Service provider | Location of Service recipient | Status of Service recipient | Who should pay GST (Forward Charge / Reverse Charge) |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | India | Registered or Unregistered | Service Provider under forward charge |
| Outside India | India | Registered | Service Receiver under reverse charge |
| Outside India | India | Unregistered | Service Provider under forward charge * |
| India | Outside India | NA | No incidence of GST (since it is a zero rated supply) ** |
* The service provider shall, for the payment of integrated tax, take a single registration under the Simplified Registration Scheme to be notified by the Government
** The service provider is required to furnish a LUT (Letter of Undertaking) to export without payment of IGST
5. What happens when the service provider supplies OIDAR services through an intermediary?
If an intermediary located outside India arranges or facilitates supply of such service to a non-taxable online recipient in India,
- The intermediary would be treated as the supplier of such service,
Except when the intermediary satisfies the following conditions.;
- The invoice or customer’s bill or receipt issued by such intermediary taking part in the supply clearly identifies the service in question and its supplier in non-taxable territory
- The intermediary involved in the supply does not authorize the charge to the customer or take part in its charge. This means that the intermediary neither collects or processes payment in any manner nor is responsible for the payment between the non-taxable online recipient and the supplier of such services
- The intermediary involved in the supply does not authorize delivery
- The general terms and conditions of the supply are not set by the intermediary involved in the supply but by the supplier of services.
Examples of what could be or could not be OIDAR services:
| Service | Whether Provision of service mediated by information technology over the internet or an electronic network | Whether it is Automated and impossible to ensure in the absence of information technology | OIDAR Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| PDF document manually emailed by provider | Yes | No | No |
| PDF document automatically emailed by provider’ s system | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDF document automatically downloaded from site | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stock photographs available for automatic download | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online course consisting of pre-recorded videos and downloadable PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online course consisting of pre-recorded videos and downloadable PDFs plus support from a live tutor | Yes | No | No |
| Individually commissioned content sent in digital form e.g., photographs, reports, medical results | Yes | No | No |
6. Indicative List of OIDAR Services:
- Website supply, web-hosting, distance maintenance of programmes and equipment
- Website hosting and webpage hosting
- Automated, online and distance maintenance of programmes
- Remote systems administration
- Online data warehousing where specific data is stored and retrieved electronically
- Online supply of on-demand disc space
- Supply of software and updating thereof
- Accessing or downloading software (including procurement/ accountancy programmes and antivirus software) plus updates
- Software to block banner adverts, otherwise known as Banner blockers
- Download drivers, such as software that interfaces computers with peripheral equipment (such as printers)
- Online automated installation of filters on websites (e) Online automated installation of firewalls
- Supply of images, text and information and making available of databases
- Accessing or downloading desktop themes
- Accessing or downloading photographic or pictorial images or screensavers
- The digitized content of books and other electronic publications
- Subscription to online newspapers and journals
- Weblogs and website statistics
- Online news, traffic information and weather reports
- Online information generated automatically by software from specific data input by the customer, such as legal and financial data, (in particular, data such as continually updated stock market data, in real time)
- The provision of advertising space including banner ads on a website/web page
- Use of search engines and Internet directories
- Supply of music, films and games, including games of chance and gambling games, and of political, cultural, artistic, sporting, scientific and entertainment broadcasts and events
- Accessing or downloading of music on to computers and mobile phones
- Accessing or downloading of jingles, excerpts, ringtones, or other sounds
- Accessing or downloading of films
- Downloading of games on to computers and mobile phones
- Accessing automated online games which are dependent on the Internet, or other similar electronic networks, where players are geographically remote from one another
- Supply of distance teaching
- Automated distance teaching dependent on the Internet or similar electronic network to function and the supply of which requires limited or no human intervention. These include virtual classrooms, except where the Internet or similar electronic network is used as a tool simply for communication between the teacher and student
- Workbooks completed by pupils online and marked automatically, without human intervention,