Delivery challan under GST: Rule 55, the format and when to use one
Checked against the Act and the Rules on 14 October 2026. Not tax advice — confirm anything you file with your CA.
Not every movement of goods is a sale. When material leaves your factory for job work, for repair, for an exhibition or in a quantity you cannot know yet, GST lets it travel on a delivery challan instead of a tax invoice. Rule 55 of the CGST Rules says when, and what the challan must carry.
When goods move on a delivery challan
Rule 55 allows a challan in place of an invoice for:
- Goods sent for job work — the most common case in manufacturing, and the subject of our job work guide.
- Goods moved for reasons other than a supply — sent for repair or testing, taken to an exhibition, moved between your own premises under the same GSTIN, or sent out on approval.
- Liquid gas where the quantity is not known when it leaves.
- Any other supply the government notifies.
If the goods are being sold and the quantity is known, it is an invoice, not a challan.
What a delivery challan must show
| Field | What to put |
|---|---|
| Number | Serial, up to 16 characters, unique in the financial year (letters, digits, - and / allowed) |
| Date | The date it is issued |
| Consignor | Your name, address and GSTIN |
| Consignee | Their name and address, and GSTIN or UIN if registered |
| Goods | HSN code and description |
| Quantity | The quantity — provisional where the exact quantity is not yet known |
| Taxable value | The value of the goods |
| Tax | Rate and amount of CGST, SGST/UTGST, IGST and cess — where the movement is a supply to the consignee |
| Place of supply | For movement between states |
| Signature | Of the supplier or an authorised person |
Tax is shown only when the movement is a supply to the consignee. A job work or repair challan carries the value but no tax, because nothing has been sold.
Numbering: one series, in date order, per year
A challan number may be up to 16 characters and must be unique within the financial year — DC/2026-27/0042 is a typical shape. You may keep more than one series (one for job work, one for returnable goods), but within a series the numbers should run in the order the challans were issued.
Two things go wrong often: a challan dated in March but numbered in the new year's series, and numbers taken out of order because a challan was typed in late. Number by the challan's own date, not by when it was entered.
Three copies, and who keeps which
- Original — for the consignee.
- Duplicate — for the transporter.
- Triplicate — kept by you, the consignor.
The challan and the e-way bill
A delivery challan does not replace the e-way bill. Where an e-way bill is needed, the challan's details go into it, and both travel with the goods.
- Generally an e-way bill is needed when the consignment value exceeds ₹50,000.
- Goods sent by a principal to a job worker in another state need an e-way bill whatever their value — either the principal or a registered job worker generates it.
Machines sent in parts
When one sale leaves in several lorries — a machine in semi-knocked-down or completely knocked-down condition, or a large order in batches — Rule 55(5) has its own sequence:
- Issue the complete tax invoice before the first consignment leaves.
- Send each consignment with a delivery challan that refers to that invoice, and a copy of the invoice.
- Send the original invoice with the last consignment.
How XERP handles delivery challans
- Challans for sales from dispatch, job work, returnable and non-returnable movements, each with its PDF in the Rule 55 layout.
- Numbered per financial year by the challan's own date, so a late entry never jumps the series.
- Returnable challans stay open until what went out has come back, and job work challans feed the ITC-04 return directly.