In India, §§12 and 13 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act) fix when GST falls due. Forward-charge supplies turn on the invoice date; reverse-charge supplies run against hard outer limits — the day after 30 days from the supplier's invoice for goods under §12(3), and the day after 60 days for services under §13(3) — with a §31(3)(f) self-invoice required where the supplier is unregistered.
TL;DR for founders
Two different questions get confused. "Who pays" is reverse charge. "When" is time of supply. They interact badly, because on a reverse-charge purchase the clock starts on a document your supplier issued and may never send you — and it stops whether or not you noticed. Miss it and you owe the tax plus interest from the date it fell due, even though you would have been entitled to full credit on the same amount. The second trap is credit timing: on a purchase from an unregistered supplier, the credit deadline runs from the invoice you raised on yourself, so a self-invoice you never issued is a credit you can never claim.
Forward charge: the invoice is the trigger
For goods, §12(2) fixes the time of supply as the earlier of the date the invoice was issued and the last date on which it ought to have been issued under §31. For services, §13(2) takes the invoice date where the invoice issues within the §31(2) window, otherwise the date the service was provided — compared in each case against the date of receipt of payment, earlier prevailing.
The advance-receipt limb is dead for goods. Notification 66/2017-Central Tax (CGST_66_2017), issued under §148 and effective 15 November 2017, notified all registered persons who have not opted for composition under §10 to pay central tax on outward supplies of goods at the §12(2)(a) invoice-linked point, superseding Notification 40/2017-Central Tax entirely. Advances received against goods therefore carry no immediate liability. The carve-in for §14 survives: on a change in the rate of tax, the special time-of-supply rules in §14 override §12(2), and which of the invoice date, payment date and supply date straddle the rate-change date determines the applicable rate. Advances against services remain taxable on receipt — §13(2) is unamended.
For a continuous supply of services under §2(33), §31(5) drives the answer. Circular 222/16/2024-GST (CIR_222_2024) holds that the Department of Telecommunications Frequency Assignment Letter is a bid-acceptance document and not an invoice or document in lieu of invoice under §13(3)(b), so the 60-day trigger does not run from it; on the deferred-instalment option GST falls due as each instalment becomes due or is paid, whichever is earlier — not all upfront. The same framework extends to other periodic-payment natural-resource allocations such as mining leases and port concessions. Circular 221/15/2024-GST (CIR_221_2024) applies it to NHAI Hybrid Annuity Mode concessions: a single indivisible construction-plus-operations contract whose annuity stream is a continuous supply, timed under §13(2) against the contractual due date where no invoice issues by the specified date.
Reverse charge: the 30-day and 60-day outer limits
Reverse charge inverts the payer but not the analysis. Two sub-sections govern:
| Goods — §12(3) | Services — §13(3) | |
|---|---|---|
| Test 1 | Date of receipt of goods | — |
| Test 2 | Date of payment entered in books or debited to bank account, whichever is earlier | Date of payment entered in books or debited to bank account, whichever is earlier |
| Test 3 | Day immediately following 30 days from the supplier's invoice | Day immediately following 60 days from the supplier's invoice or document in lieu |
| Fallback | Date of entry in the recipient's books | Date of entry in the recipient's books; for associated-enterprise services from outside India, earlier of book entry and payment |
The outer limits are the operational risk. A recipient that pays a foreign consultant 90 days after invoice has a time of supply on day 61, not day 90, and interest under §50 runs from the due date of the return for that period. Reverse-charge tax is also payable in cash — §49(4) confines the electronic credit ledger to output tax — so the liability is a genuine working-capital event even where full credit follows.
The §31(3)(f) self-invoice, and the credit deadline it controls
Where the supplier is unregistered, §31(3)(f) requires the recipient to issue an invoice on itself. The self-invoice must satisfy Rule 46 of the CGST Rules, 2017, and Rule 36(1)(b) recognises it as the document evidencing the resulting credit. Where the supplier is registered, no self-invoice arises — its own tax invoice serves.
Circular 211/5/2024-GST (CIR_211_2024) settles the consequence that most groups get wrong. For reverse-charge supplies from an unregistered supplier, the relevant financial year for the §16(4) credit deadline is the year of self-invoice issuance, not the year of receipt of the supply. The reasoning is structural: §16(2)(a) bars credit without possession of a tax invoice and Rule 36(1)(b) names the §31(3)(f) document, so the clock cannot start earlier. Three conditions attach — tax paid in cash under reverse charge, other §16 and §17 conditions satisfied, and where the self-invoice issues after the time of supply, interest under §50 on the delayed tax with possible §122 penalty for the delayed self-invoicing. The practical reading: a group that discovers unbilled imported intra-group services from three years ago can still take the credit by self-invoicing now, but pays interest for the intervening period.
Veritect Legal AI
Reverse-charge demands rarely turn on whether the entry applies — they turn on which version of the entry applied on the transaction date. Notification 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate) has been amended more than a dozen times, and several amendments narrow rather than widen. Circular 130/49/2019-GST (
CIR_130_2019) is the clearest example: reverse charge on renting of motor vehicles to a body corporate applies only where the supplier is a non-body-corporate that has not charged 12% with full credit, so a body corporate billed at 12% has no reverse-charge liability at all, and the clarification runs retrospectively to 1 October 2019. Circular 140/10/2020-GST (CIR_140_2020) draws the parallel line on directors: independent and non-employee directors sit outside the Schedule III employment carve-out and their remuneration is on reverse charge, while an employee-director's salary components subject to income-tax deduction under §192 are outside GST and the professional-fee components under §194J are not. Veritect Legal AI holds the full amendment chain of the reverse-charge notifications with effective dates, so a query such as "was sponsorship to a body corporate on reverse charge in November 2024" resolves against the entry as it then stood.
Tracking the entry list, because it moves
Notification 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate) (CGSTR_13_2017) is the principal §9(3) list for services; IGSTR_10_2017 is its integrated-tax twin for inter-State supplies including import of services. The original nine entries covered goods transport agency road transport, advocates' legal services, arbitral tribunals, sponsorship, government and local-authority services to business entities, director services, insurance agents, recovery agents and copyright transfers by authors and composers. Since then:
- Direct selling agents to banks and NBFCs entered at S. No. 11 by
CGSTR_15_2018from 27 July 2018. - Authors and composers — S. No. 9 was substituted by
CGSTR_22_2019from 1 October 2019, which also introduced the motor-vehicle-renting entry clarified byCIR_130_2019. - Goods transport agency forward-charge option was rewritten by
CGSTR_05_2022from 18 July 2022, replacing the old "has not paid at 6%" condition with an Annexure III declaration on every invoice; the same notification inserted S. No. 5AA putting renting of residential dwellings to a registered person on reverse charge, and narrowed the India Post entry. - Indian Railways was brought alongside the Department of Posts at S. No. 5 by
CGSTR_14_2023from 20 October 2023. - Renting of non-residential property from an unregistered landlord entered as S. No. 5AB by
CGSTR_09_2024from 10 October 2024 — a registered tenant now pays 18% on gross rent under reverse charge and reclaims it subject to §17(5). - Two narrowings followed by
CGSTR_07_2025on 16 January 2025: sponsorship reverse charge now applies only where the recipient is a person other than a body corporate, moving body-corporate sponsors back to forward charge; and composition taxpayers are carved out of S. No. 5AB.
A parallel obligation set arrived for metal scrap in October 2024 and is often mistaken for reverse charge. Notification 24/2024-Central Tax (CGST_24_2024) removed the §23(2) registration exemption for suppliers of Chapters 72 to 81 metal scrap from 10 October 2024, making registration compulsory regardless of turnover; Notification 25/2024-Central Tax (CGST_25_2024) made any registered person buying such scrap from another registered person a mandatory tax deductor under §51, filing FORM GSTR-7 monthly. That is deduction at source, not reverse charge — the supplier still raises a tax invoice and discharges the output tax.
FAQ
Q: What is the time of supply for a normal forward-charge supply?
A: For goods, §12(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act) fixes the time of supply as the earlier of the date of issue of invoice and the last date on which the invoice ought to have been issued under §31. For services, §13(2) fixes it as the date of invoice where the invoice issues within the §31(2) period, otherwise the date of provision of service, in each case compared against the date of receipt of payment and the earlier taken. The advance-receipt limb no longer applies to goods: Notification 66/2017-Central Tax (CGST_66_2017), issued under §148, notified registered persons who have not opted for composition under §10 to pay tax on outward supplies of goods at the §12(2)(a) invoice-linked point.
Q: When must a recipient issue a self-invoice under reverse charge?
A: Where a registered person receives a supply from an unregistered supplier and is liable to pay tax on reverse charge under §9(3) or §9(4) of the CGST Act, §31(3)(f) requires the recipient to issue an invoice in respect of that supply. The self-invoice must satisfy the contents prescribed by Rule 46 of the CGST Rules, 2017, and is the document that Rule 36(1)(b) recognises as evidencing the resulting input tax credit. Where the supplier is registered, no self-invoice arises — the supplier's own tax invoice serves, even though the recipient discharges the tax. Reverse-charge tax is payable in cash and cannot be set off against the electronic credit ledger.
Q: What are the 30-day and 60-day outer limits under reverse charge?
A: Under §12(3) of the CGST Act, the time of supply for goods taxable on reverse charge is the earliest of the date of receipt of goods, the date of payment as entered in the recipient's books or debited to its bank account, and the date immediately following 30 days from the date of issue of the supplier's invoice. Under §13(3), for services on reverse charge the time of supply is the earlier of the date of payment and the date immediately following 60 days from the date of issue of the supplier's invoice or other document in lieu. Where neither test can be applied, the date of entry in the recipient's books governs — and for associated-enterprise services from outside India, the earlier of the book-entry date and the payment date.
Q: Which financial year fixes the §16(4) deadline for reverse-charge credit?
A: Circular 211/5/2024-GST (CIR_211_2024), effective 26 June 2024, clarifies that where a registered recipient receives a reverse-charge supply from an unregistered supplier, the relevant financial year for the §16(4) CGST Act time limit is the financial year in which the recipient issued its own self-invoice under §31(3)(f) — not the year in which the supply was received. The reasoning is structural: §16(2)(a) bars credit without possession of a tax invoice, and Rule 36(1)(b) recognises the §31(3)(f) self-invoice as the eligible document, so the §16(4) clock can only start on self-invoice issuance. Three conditions attach: the tax must have been paid in cash under reverse charge, the other §16 and §17 conditions must be met, and a delayed self-invoice attracts interest under §50 with possible penalty under §122.
Q: Which services attract reverse charge under §9(3)?
A: Notification 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate) (CGSTR_13_2017), effective 1 July 2017, is the principal list. Its original nine entries cover goods transport agency road transport to specified entities, legal and representational services by advocates to business entities, arbitral tribunal services, sponsorship, most government and local authority services to business entities, director services to their own company, insurance agent services, recovery agent services to banks and NBFCs, and copyright transfer by authors and composers. The list has been amended repeatedly — direct selling agent services to banks and NBFCs were added by Notification 15/2018-Central Tax (Rate) (CGSTR_15_2018), renting of residential dwellings to registered persons by Notification 5/2022-Central Tax (Rate) (CGSTR_05_2022), and renting of non-residential property from an unregistered landlord by Notification 9/2024-Central Tax (Rate) (CGSTR_09_2024).
Q: Does a registered tenant pay reverse charge on commercial rent?
A: Only where the landlord is unregistered. Notification 9/2024-Central Tax (Rate) (CGSTR_09_2024) inserted S. No. 5AB into the principal reverse-charge notification with effect from 10 October 2024, covering renting of any property other than a residential dwelling supplied by an unregistered person to a registered person. From that date a registered tenant renting commercial or industrial premises from an unregistered landlord discharges GST on the gross rental value under reverse charge and reclaims it as credit, subject to §17(5) of the CGST Act. Notification 7/2025-Central Tax (Rate) (CGSTR_07_2025) narrowed the entry from 16 January 2025 by excluding registered persons who have opted for composition under §10.
Q: How does the time of supply work for a continuous supply of services?
A: Where a supply is a continuous supply of services under §2(33) of the CGST Act, §31(5) governs invoicing and drives the timing. Circular 222/16/2024-GST (CIR_222_2024) applies this to deferred-instalment spectrum allocation: because the DoT Frequency Assignment Letter is a bid acceptance and not an invoice or a document in lieu of invoice under §13(3)(b), the 60-day trigger does not run from it, and GST falls due as each instalment becomes due or is paid, whichever is earlier — not all upfront. Circular 221/15/2024-GST (CIR_221_2024) applies the same framework to NHAI Hybrid Annuity Mode concessions, which are single indivisible contracts whose annuity stream is a continuous supply of services under §13(2).
Related on Veritect: GTA reverse charge under §9(3) — when your business pays GST on freight · RCM on commercial property let by unregistered landlords · §16(4) time limit for RCM supplies from unregistered persons
Sources
Primary CBIC and Government of India sources relied on for this explainer:
- CBIC Tax Information Portal — notification and circular text: taxinformation.cbic.gov.in
- CBIC GST portal (archival instruments, 2017–2022): cbic-gst.gov.in
- GST Council — recommendations underlying the 47th, 54th and 55th meeting RCM changes: gstcouncil.gov.in
- CGST Act, 2017 — §§9, 12, 13, 14, 31, 49, 51: indiacode.nic.in
- Gazette of India — notification publication: egazette.gov.in
Corpus anchors: CGST_66_2017, CGSTR_13_2017, CGSTR_15_2018, CGSTR_22_2019, CGSTR_05_2022, CGSTR_14_2023, CGSTR_09_2024, CGSTR_07_2025, IGSTR_10_2017, CGST_24_2024, CGST_25_2024, CIR_130_2019, CIR_140_2020, CIR_211_2024, CIR_221_2024, CIR_222_2024.
This explainer is general information on Indian central GST law and is not legal or tax advice. Verify the operative notification entry as it stood on the transaction date before acting.
Beyond this brief Preview
This article covers the decision framework. The full compliance picture includes the verbatim text of §§12, 13 and 14 with every clause and explanation, the complete Table of Notification 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate) as it stands today with each amending notification mapped to its entry and effective date, Annexure III of the goods transport agency forward-charge declaration, the §9(4) notified-class history including the real-estate promoter shortfall entries, Rule 46's invoice-content requirements as applied to a self-invoice, and the integrated-tax mirror under §5(3) and §5(4) of the IGST Act for import of services. Veritect Legal AI holds all sixteen anchor instruments cited above in full text, supersession-tracked, so practitioners can resolve queries such as "what was the time of supply for a foreign consultancy invoice dated 12 March paid on 30 June" or "did S. No. 5AB apply to a composition restaurant's shop rent in December 2024" against the operative sources rather than secondary summaries. Access through veritect.ai.