The GTA Forward Charge Option: Annexure V, Annexure VI and the Window That Closes on 31 March

GTA Forward Charge Option explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.

Reverse charge is the default for a goods transport agency. Forward charge is the exception, and it has to be claimed — in a specific form, in a specific window, and repeated on every invoice. Miss any of the three and the recipient is back on the hook.

Under entry 9 of Notification No. 11/2017-CT(Rate) as amended by Notification No. 3/2022-CT(Rate) w.e.f. 18.07.2022, a GTA may elect to pay tax itself. The election is made in Annexure V, filed with the jurisdictional authority on or after 1 January and not later than 31 March of the preceding financial year (the earlier 15 March deadline was moved by Notification No. 6/2023-CT(Rate) w.e.f. 27.07.2023). Since 27.07.2023 the option carries forward automatically to later years unless the GTA files Annexure VI to revert. Separately, every invoice must carry the Annexure III declaration required by the second proviso to Entry 1 of Notification No. 13/2017-CT(Rate) — otherwise the disapplication of reverse charge does not bite.

The default, and why it matters

Volume I of the ICAI Background Material puts it in one line: "Payment of tax under reverse charge is the default mode of payment of tax for a GTA. Annexure V is required to be filed only when GTA wishes to pay tax under forward charge."

That framing decides who bears the risk of an incomplete file. If Annexure V cannot be produced, the position reverts to Entry 1 — and the person the department will assess is the recipient, not the transporter. A recipient who accepted a tax-charging invoice, took credit, and did not verify the declaration is exposed twice: for the reverse charge it did not pay, and for the credit it took on an invoice that should not have carried tax.

The two limbs of the option

Where the GTA does opt for forward charge under entry 9 of Notification No. 11/2017-CT(Rate), the Handbook records two sub-options:

• The lower rate without credit — 5% (2.5% CGST + 2.5% SGST/UTGST, or 5% IGST), with no ITC on goods or services used in supplying the road transport service; or
• The higher rate with credit — stated in the Handbook and in Volume I as 12% (6% + 6%, or 12% IGST), with no restriction on availing ITC.

Under reverse charge the rate is the lower one — 5% — and the credit restriction bites on the GTA, not the recipient. The recipient pays 5% in cash and, if otherwise eligible, takes credit of it.

A rate caution. The Handbook states the law to 1 February 2025 and Volume I reproduces the same 5%/12% option. Rates for services continue to be governed by Notification No. 11/2017-CT(Rate) as amended from time to time — Volume I confirms that it is the goods rate notification (1/2017) and the goods exemption notification (2/2017) that were superseded, by 9/2025-CT(Rate) and 10/2025-CT(Rate) dated 17.09.2025. Read the rate column of entry 9 as it stands on the date of your invoice; the option structure below is unaffected by any rate change.

Annexure V: what it says and when it must be filed

The form is a two-paragraph undertaking to the jurisdictional GST authority, and the two paragraphs are the whole substance:

1. That the GTA has taken (or applied for) registration and undertakes to pay GST under forward charge in accordance with section 9(1) on GTA services in relation to transportation of goods supplied by it during the financial year, and to comply with all provisions of the Act as they apply to a person liable to pay tax; and
2. That the option once exercised shall not be changed within one year from the date of exercising it, and remains valid until the start of the financial year for which the GTA reverts by filing Annexure VI.

The filing window, as the Handbook sets it out:

Prior to 27.07.2023 the closing date was 15 March of the preceding year; Notification No. 6/2023-CT(Rate) dated 26.07.2023 moved it to 31 March and opened the window from 1 January.

A transitional point for FY 2022-23 that still explains old files. Because Annexure V arrived on 18.07.2022, an invoice charging CGST and SGST/UTGST or IGST could be issued between 18.07.2022 and 16.08.2022 before the option was formally exercised — provided the GTA then mandatorily filed Annexure V by 16.08.2022.

The new GTA, and the GTA that crosses the threshold

A GTA that commences a new business or crosses the registration threshold during a financial year does not wait for the January window. It may exercise the option before the expiry of:

• 45 days from the date of applying for GST registration, or
• 1 month from the date of obtaining registration,

whichever is later.

The change that removed an annual chore: deemed continuation

Before 27.07.2023, the option was read as a year-by-year election. Notification No. 6/2023-CT(Rate) changed that. The option exercised for a financial year is now deemed to have been exercised for the next and all future financial years, unless the GTA files Annexure VI.

So Annexure V is filed once, not every year. A practice that still refiles Annexure V annually is harmless but unnecessary; a practice that assumed the option lapsed and stopped charging tax without filing Annexure VI is not harmless at all.

Annexure VI: getting back out

Annexure VI is the mirror image — a declaration to the jurisdictional authority that the GTA, having exercised the option by filing Annexure V on a stated date, wants to revert to reverse charge for a stated financial year, and understands that the option once exercised cannot be changed within one year and remains valid till the end of the year for which it is exercised.

It is filed in the same window — on or after 1 January and not later than 31 March of the preceding financial year.

The one-year lock cuts both ways. A GTA that opted into forward charge in, say, February for the coming year cannot revert mid-year because a large customer prefers reverse charge. The Handbook is explicit: "option once exercised cannot be withdrawn during the financial year."

Annexure III: the declaration the invoice must carry

This is the limb most often missed, because it lives in the reverse charge notification, not the rate notification. The second proviso to Entry 1 of Notification No. 13/2017-CT(Rate), inserted by Notification No. 5/2022-CT(Rate) w.e.f. 18.07.2022, disapplies the entry only where both conditions are met — the option has been exercised and the GTA "has issued a tax invoice to the recipient charging Central Tax at the applicable rates and has made a declaration as prescribed in Annexure III on such invoice."

The text of the declaration:

"I/we have taken registration under the CGST Act, 2017 and have exercised the option to pay tax on services of GTA in relation to transport of goods supplied by us from the Financial Year ____ under forward charge and have not reverted to reverse charge mechanism."

Consequential amendments were made to Annexure III by Notification No. 8/2023-CT(Rate) dated 26.07.2023, alongside the Annexure V and VI changes.

For a recipient, this line is the audit trail. It is the one document in the recipient's own possession that evidences why it did not pay reverse charge on that invoice.

Where the entries land in the returns

The Handbook's chart is worth reproducing in words. A registered GTA supplying under reverse charge reports the supply invoice-wise and rate-wise in Table 4B of GSTR-1 ("B2B Reverse charge") and shows the taxable value in Table 3.1(c) of GSTR-3B; it lands in Table 5C of GSTR-9 and Table 7D of GSTR-9C. The recipient reports it in Table 3.1(d) of GSTR-3B, claims the credit in Table 4(A)(3), and reports it annually in Table 4G with the credit in Table 6D (registered supplier) or 6C (unregistered supplier).

Key takeaways

• Reverse charge is the default for a GTA; forward charge must be claimed.
• Annexure V is filed with the jurisdictional authority between 1 January and 31 March of the preceding financial year — the deadline moved from 15 March by Notification No. 6/2023-CT(Rate) w.e.f. 27.07.2023.
• Since 27.07.2023 the option rolls forward automatically; Annexure VI in the same window is the only way out.
• A new GTA gets 45 days from applying or 1 month from obtaining registration, whichever is later.
• The Annexure III declaration must appear on the invoice — the option alone does not disapply Entry 1.
• The option is locked for one year and cannot be withdrawn mid-year.

Read next

• RCM Entry 1: Who Actually Pays GST on a GTA Freight Bill
• ITC on Reverse Charge Tax: Conditions, Timing and the ISD Route
• RCM Entry 15: Renting of a Passenger Motor Vehicle

Disclaimer: Positions stated as on 5 September 2026, based on entry 9 of Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate) with Annexures V and VI, and entry 1 with Annexure III of Notification No. 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate), as reproduced in the ICAI Handbook on Reverse Charge under GST (2nd edition, February 2025) and the ICAI Background Material on GST, Volume I. Rate figures in entry 9 should be read against the rate notification in force on the date of the invoice.