NEW DELHI: The new draft of the Goods and Services Tax Bill will be problematic for companies in the e-commerce sector because of a lack of clarity in the way “operators” and "aggregators" are defined, said industry grouping Internet and Mobile Association of India The association welcomed the new draft resolving a long standing challenge for the e-commerce sector—that of clarifying that the first point of transaction will be the point of taxation.However, it said that the Bill defines "aggregators" and "electronic commerce operators" (or ‘operators’) as two separate categories. It defines tax liabilities for "operators," but as online businesses work under fast changing models, there is a possibility that the Bill could create uncertainty about whether companies defined as "aggregators" would be subject to the same liabilities."The deeper challenge is the imprecise and overlying definitions failing to take into account the different business models that exist in this sector," said IAMAI in a statement.An "aggregator" is defined in the Bill as someone "who owns and manages an electronic platform, and by means of the application and a communication device, enables a potential customer to connect with the persons providing service of a particular kind under the brand name or trade name of the said aggregator".This definition would mean a company such as naukri.com would not be an aggregator. Online classifieds like naukri do not list ‘persons providing service of a particular kind under the brand name or trade name of the said aggregator’. The jobs listed on naukri are actually offered by other companies in their name, so there is ambiguity in terms of how this will be seen for the purpose of taxation."Straight jacketing ‘e-commerce’ into poorly defined categories will stifle innovation, which will not only affect the fortunes of e-commerce companies but will also prevent better services for customers in India," said IAMAI in a statement.The services provided by online classifieds such as olx and quikr also does get recognised in the GST definition as it only defines ‘aggregators’ for services.Companies such as makemytrip.com and yatra.com, who are identified as online travel operators, do not fall under the GST definition of aggregator. In addition, they also facilitate payments and supply of services, which could wrongfully qualify them as ‘operators’ rather than ‘aggregators’ under the new GST Bill. Ola and Uber make the cut for being "aggregators", but they also facilitate payments which could cause such service providers to be misidentified as ‘operators’, IAMAI said."These discrepancies may lead to misinterpretation of the tax provisions by both regulators and the internet services companies, leading to unnecessary compliance related conflicts," said the association, which counts Google , Twitter and Microsoft among its members.