GST on Transport of Goods by Truck (GTA Services)
GSTZone Desk · Updated 2026
Short answer
Truck freight from a Goods Transport Agency is usually taxed at 5% under reverse charge, meaning the business receiving the goods pays the GST directly — not the transporter.
In detail
When a registered business hires a Goods Transport Agency (GTA) to move goods by road, the default rule flips the usual billing logic: the GTA doesn’t add GST to its bill. Instead, the business receiving the transport service pays 5% GST directly to the government under reverse charge, and can claim credit for it if otherwise eligible — but no ITC is available at this 5% rate to the recipient’s onward chain for that specific input.
A GTA can instead choose to charge GST itself under the normal forward-charge method — either 5% without ITC, or 12% with full ITC — but that choice has to be exercised for the whole financial year, by mid-March, not switched invoice by invoice.
Not every truck movement is inside this net at all. A single consignment transported for an unregistered individual, or specific categories the law exempts, can fall completely outside GST — no reverse charge, no forward charge, nothing to pay.
GSTZone tip
Before assuming you owe reverse charge GST on a freight bill, check what the GTA actually opted for that financial year — if they’ve opted for forward charge, they should be showing GST on their own invoice, and you shouldn’t also be self-paying it under reverse charge.
Related questions
What counts as a ‘Goods Transport Agency’?+
A GTA is specifically an entity that issues a consignment note for the transport of goods by road — a transporter who doesn’t issue a consignment note generally isn’t treated as a GTA for this purpose.
Is transport of agricultural produce taxed the same way?+
No — transport of specified goods including agricultural produce, milk, salt, and a few other listed items by a GTA is exempt from GST altogether.
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