Goods Transportation in India

The most popular form of goods transport in India is via road. As per the National Highways
Authority of India, about 65% of freight and 80% passenger traffic is carried by the roads.
Transportation of goods by road are done by transporter or courier agency. This article will
discuss the transporter, i.e, the GTA.

What service of transportation of goods is exempt under GST?

Services by way of transportation of goods are exempted:
(a) by road except the services of:
(i) a goods transportation agency;
(ii) a courier agency
(b) by inland waterways.
Therefore, the service of transportation of goods by road continue to be exempt even under the
GST regime. GST is applicable only on goods transport agency, GTA.

What is a GTA?
As per Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28th June, 2017, goods transport
agency or GTA means any person who provides service in relation to transport of goods by
road and issues consignment note, by whatever name called.
This means, while others might also hire out vehicles for goods transportation, only those
issuing a consignment note are considered as a GTA. Thus, a consignment note is an essential
condition to be considered as a GTA.

What is a consignment note?

A consignment note is a document issued by a goods transportation agency against the receipt
of goods for the purpose of transporting the goods by road in a goods carriage.
If a consignment note is not issued by the transporter, the service provider will not come within
the ambit of goods transport agency.
If a consignment note is issued, it means that the lien on the goods has been
transferred to the transporter. Now the transporter is responsible for the goods till its safe
delivery to the consignee.
A consignment note is serially numbered and contains

Name of consignor
Name of consignee
Registration number of the goods carriage in which the goods are transported
Details of the goods
Place of origin
Place of destination.
Person liable to pay GST consignor, consignee, or the GTA.
 What
are the services provided by a GTA?
The service includes not only the actual transportation of goods, but other intermediate/ancillary
service provided such as-

Loading/unloading
Packing/ unpacking
Trans-shipment
Temporary warehousing etc.

If these services are included and not provided as independent activities, then they are also
covered under GTA.
What is the rate of GST on GTA?

*As per Notification No. 20/2017-Central Tax (Rate) 22nd August, 2017

Is a GTA liable to register?

There was a lot of confusions whether a GTA has to register under GST.
As per Notification No. 5/2017- Central Tax dated 19/06/2017, a person who is engaged in
making only supplies of taxable goods/services on which reverse charge applies is exempted
from obtaining registration under GST.
Thus, a GTA does not have to register under GST if he is exclusively transporting goods
where the total tax is required to be paid by the recipient under reverse charge basis
(even if the turnover exceeds 20 lakhs). ``
Scenarios for Registration for a Goods Transport Agency

Who pays GST while hiring a GTA?

If a GTA provides the services to the certain businesses, recipient of services is required to pay
GST under reverse charge.

Which businesses are liable to pay GST under reverse charge for a GTA?
The following businesses (recipient of services) is required to pay GST under reverse charge:-

1. Factory registered under the Factories Act,1948;

2. A society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or under any other law
3. A co-operative society established under any law;
4. A GST registered person
5. A body corporate established by or under any law; or
6. A partnership firm whether registered or not (including AOP)
7. Casual taxable person
Who will pay under Reverse Charge?
As per Notification No. 13/2017- Central Tax dated 28/06/2017 the person who pays or is liable
to pay freight for the transportation of goods by road in goods carriage, located in the taxable
territory shall be treated as the receiver of service.

Payment is by sender
If the supplier of goods (consignor) pays the GTA, then the sender will be treated as the
recipient. If he belongs to the category of persons above then he will pay GST on reverse
charge basis.

Payment by Receiver
If the liability of freight payment lies with the receiver (Consignee), then the receiver of goods
will be treated as a receiver of transportation services. If he belongs to any of the above
category of persons, then he will pay GST on reverse charge basis.
Various Scenarios to Determine Who is Liable to pay GST in case of a GTA

**** If GTA is registered

Reverse Charge if the GTA Is Unregistered

As per Notification No.8/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28th June 2017, intra-state supplies of
goods or services or both received by a registered person from any unregistered supplier, is
exempted from GST if it does not exceed Rs. 5,000 in a day.
If the transport charges (from an unregistered GTA) are less than Rs. 5,000 per day then
no GST will be payable.

Input Tax Credit

If GTA pays GST

GTA has 2 options-

12% GST with ITC *
OR
5% GST with no ITC*
However, the GTA has to opt at the beginning of financial year.
*As per Notification No. 20/2017-Central Tax (Rate) 22nd August, 2017
If Service Receiver pays GST under RCM

Service receiver can always avail ITC on GST paid under RCM.

Various Scenarios to Determine Eligibility of ITC

*As per Notification No. 20/2017-Central Tax (Rate) 22nd August, 2017

Invoicing for GTA

Any GST compliant invoice of a GTA must have following details-

1. Name of the consignor and the consignee

2. Registration number of goods carriage in which the goods are transported
3. Details of goods transported
4. Gross weight of the consignment
5. Details of place of origin and destination
6. GSTIN of the person liable for paying tax whether as consigner, consignee or goods
transport agency
7. Name, address and GSTIN (if applicable) of the GTA
8. Tax invoice number (it must be generated consecutively and each tax invoice will have a
unique number for that financial year)
9. Date of issue
10. Description of service
11. Taxable value of supply
12. Applicable rate of GST (Rates of CGST, SGST, IGST, UTGST and cess clearly
mentioned)
13. Amount of tax (With breakup of amounts of CGST, SGST, IGST, UTGST and cess)
14. Whether GST is payable on reverse charge basis
15. Signature of the supplier
16.
Payment of Tax by a GTA
A GTA cannot enjoy any ITC on any of the inputs. So, payment of tax will be only through cash
in the normal modes of card/netbanking/cash (only for taxes upto Rs.10,000).

Returns to be Filed by a GTA

If all the services of the GTA fall under RCM then a GTA is not required to register.
If a GTA registers, then it will have to file the normal 3 monthly returns GSTR-1 (sales),
GSTR-2 (purchases-no ITC available) & GSTR-3 (monthly summary & tax liability).

How to determine Place of Supply for a GTA

The place of supply of services by way of transportation of goods, including by mail or courier
to
(a) a registered person, shall be the location of such person
(b) a person other than a registered person, shall be the location at which such goods are
handed over for their transportation.

Examples for determining place of supply

Rajesh is a registered dealer in Bangalore. He hires a GTA to deliver goods to Mumbai.
Place of supply will be Bangalore.
Anita is unregistered dealer in Gujarat who hires a GTA to deliver goods to Rajasthan.
Place of supply will be Gujarat where Anita hands over the goods to the transporter.
Vikas is registered in both Mumbai and Bangalore. He hires a transporter (based in
Mumbai) to deliver from Bangalore to Delhi.
CGST & SGST will be applicable.
If the transporter is based in Chennai, then IGST will be applicable
 FAQs on Goods Transport Agency.

Ajay hired a GTA to transport his goods. The consideration charged was Rs. 1,200. Will
Ajay pay GST?
Ajay will not pay GST under RCM as the consideration for transportation of goods on a
consignment transported in a single carriage is less than Rs. 1,500.

Vinod hired a GTA to transport goods. The GTA was asked to come 2 days as Vinod
would receive the goods in batches. The entire consideration was Rs. 600. Will Vinod pay
GST?
Vinod will not pay GST because the consideration charged for transportation of all such goods
for a single consignee does not exceed Rs. 750.

Mr. Ajay, a working professional, is moving houses and hires XYZ GTA to transport his
household items. XYZ demands Ajay to pay GST under RCM as moving charges are Rs.
6,000. Ajay is confused.
Ans: Ajay is unregistered and if XYZ GTA is also unregistered under GST then, GST is not
applicable.
If XYZ is registered, then it will pay GST of 5%. RCM will not apply on Ajay.
Anand, a garments shop owner in Kolkata, hires a truck to deliver goods from wholesaler
to his (Anands) shop. Anands turnover is less than 20 lakhs and he has not registered
under GST. The GTA demands that Anand should pay tax under RCM. Anand argues that
since he is not registered, he does not have to pay any GST.
Ans: Only the persons above (Notification No. 13/2017- Central Tax (Rate) dated 28th June,
2017) are required to pay GST under RCM. Unregistered dealers (Anand) purchasing
goods/services from unregistered GTA do not have to pay GST under reverse charge
mechanism. If the URD hires from a registered GTA, then the registered GTA is liable to pay
GST.
So, Anand is not liable to pay GST under RCM.

Anand now purchases garments from Assam and pays for a truck to deliver the goods to
his shop in Kolkata. The GTA says that Anand has to register for GST as he is making an
inter-state purchase as only registered dealers can have inter-state trade.
Ans: An unregistered person can make inter-state purchases. For making inter-state sales, he
will have to be compulsorily registered.
Since, Anand is an unregistered dealer and the GTA is also unregistered then the concept of
RCM does not arise.
The GTA is registered at Assam and its branch is collecting cash in kolkata on his
behalf. Recipient of service Anand is in kolkata. If Anand was registered, would he have
charged IGST or SGST/CGST under RCM?
If the original transporter in Assam bills Anand, then IGST should be charged. If he bills the
branch then SGST/CGST will apply.

Anand has received a one-time contract to sell garments to a dealer in Mumbai. Anand
hires a truck to send the goods.
Since, Anand is not registered under GST, he cannot make any inter-state sale. To make an
inter-state sale, he must register as a casual taxable person. Then when he hires a truck to
send the garments, automatically he is liable to pay GST under RCM.

Anand is sick of all this and decides to voluntarily register. He hires a truck again to
transfer goods from the wholesaler to his shop. GTA asks him to pay GST on RCM as he
is registered. But Anands view is that his turnover is still below 20 lakhs.
Ans: The threshold of turnover does not matter if a person is voluntarily registered. All
provisions of GST Act will apply to a registered person. Anand is liable to pay GST under RCM.

Anands turnover has increased to 45 lakhs. He wants to shift to composition scheme as

he sells mainly to end consumers. But he is worried as his GTA has told him they would
not deliver his goods if he is registered under composition scheme as the GTA become
liable for GST.
Ans: This is a myth. Even composition dealers are liable to pay GST under RCM. Anand will
pay GST on RCM if he hires a GTA whether he is registered as a composition dealer or as a
normal dealer.

Conclusion
The concept of RCM on GTA was also there under service tax.
Pure transportation of goods services is mostly provided by unorganized sector and hence they
have been specifically excluded from the tax net. In respect of GTA, the liability to pay GST falls
on the recipients under reverse charge in most of the cases. However, the GTA may opt to pay
under forward charge.

However, transporters were confused in the beginning due to the law persons who are required
to pay tax under reverse charge have to be compulsorily registered. Transporters refused
unregistered dealers because they were afraid they would have to register.