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There is no single certificate that automatically proves an export of services under Indian GST. You need a transaction file that allows a reviewer to test all five conditions in section 2(6) of the IGST Act: the supplier is in India, the recipient is outside India, the place of supply is outside India, consideration has been received through a legally acceptable route, and the parties are not merely establishments of the same person. The statutory text is available in the IGST Act on the CBIC website.
For ordinary compliance, assemble the contract or order, recipient-location evidence, service-performance records, tax invoice, place-of-supply analysis, accounting entries and payment trail. A refund claim has an expressly identified extra requirement: invoice numbers and dates matched with relevant Bank Realization Certificates (BRCs) or Foreign Inward Remittance Certificates (FIRCs), where applicable. A foreign address, foreign-currency invoice or overseas payment alone is not enough.
Start with the five statutory conditions
Export treatment is cumulative. If one condition fails, the supply may not qualify as an export of services even when the customer is abroad. Use a separate evidence item or clearly documented explanation for each condition.
- Supplier located in India. Keep the supplier’s GST registration details, legal name, address and records identifying the Indian establishment that made the supply.
- Recipient located outside India. Retain the customer’s legal name, overseas business or residence address, contract details and information showing which establishment actually received the service.
- Place of supply outside India. Apply the correct section 13 rule to the actual service. The recipient’s foreign location is not, by itself, the answer.
- Payment received in the qualifying manner. Preserve a trace from invoice to bank credit or other permitted remittance evidence, including explanations for deductions, currency conversion, timing or a different payer.
- Supplier and recipient are not merely establishments of a distinct person. Check whether the recipient is a branch, head office or other establishment treated as a distinct person under GST rather than an independent legal customer.
The statute and its place-of-supply provisions are in the CBIC IGST Act text. Your file should let an auditor move from each legal condition to contemporaneous documents and back to the invoice.
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Build one evidence file for every exported service
The law does not publish one universal checklist naming every contract, email or work log that must exist. Those records are prudent substantiation: they explain the statutory facts and make the transaction auditable. Keep them together by customer, contract and invoice period, with a short index.
Identify both parties and the receiving establishment
- Supplier GST registration certificate or master data showing the Indian legal entity and address.
- Signed service agreement, purchase order, engagement letter or statement of work naming the customer and the contracting entities.
- The customer’s legal name, overseas address, tax or company identifier where available, and a record of the establishment that receives the service.
- Corporate-structure or branch information where an overseas office could be a branch or other establishment of the Indian entity.
A customer billing address is useful but should be supported by the contract and recipient records. If an overseas group company signs the order while another office receives the work, document that arrangement rather than assuming the signatory is the recipient for GST purposes.
Describe what was actually supplied
- Scope of work, specifications, milestones and agreed deliverables.
- Dated correspondence, meeting records, acceptance messages, reports, files or deployment records that show performance.
- Time sheets or work logs where the engagement is billed by time, and a concise cross-reference connecting the deliverable to each invoice.
- Change orders, credit notes or revised scopes explaining why the invoiced value differs from the original order.
Keep records proportionate to the engagement. A complex implementation may need milestone acceptance and repository history; a short advisory assignment may be adequately explained by the signed order, advice delivered and customer acceptance.
Write a place-of-supply note
For each service type, add a brief note identifying the section 13 rule used, the relevant facts and any exception considered. This note is often the difference between a persuasive file and one that merely shows a foreign customer. Attach the agreement and performance records that support the conclusion.
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Trace consideration from invoice to receipt
- Invoice-to-payment reconciliation showing invoice number, amount, currency, date and bank credit.
- Bank statement, remittance advice, SWIFT or other bank-generated evidence appropriate to the payment route.
- Available BRC, FIRC or equivalent inward-remittance documentation, especially where a refund will be claimed.
- Written explanation for withholding tax, bank charges, net settlement, split payments, a parent-company payer or a receipt in a different currency.
BRCs and FIRCs are specifically identified for the export-of-services refund statement. The material does not make either certificate the only acceptable evidence for every ordinary export transaction; preserve the strongest bank evidence available for the route used.
Analyze place of supply before calling the service an export
Section 13 generally places a cross-border service at the recipient’s location, but the general rule has important exceptions. The service must be classified by its legal and commercial substance, not simply by the label on an invoice.
Intermediary and facilitation services
Intermediary services are one of the main traps. The statutory exception places intermediary services at the supplier’s location, so a broker, commission agent or facilitator in India may fail the place-of-supply condition even when the principal or customer is non-resident. CBIC’s sectoral FAQ discusses a broker serving non-resident clients and a foreign firm facilitating software sales. Use the statutory definition and the actual activities: arranging or facilitating another person’s supply is not automatically the same as supplying the underlying service on one’s own account.
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Section 13 contains special rules for services connected with goods physically made available, services requiring a person’s physical presence, immovable property, admission to or organization of events, transportation, specified financial services supplied to account holders, short-term hiring of transport, and online information and database access or retrieval services. The applicable rule depends on the facts and the law in force for the transaction date. Record why a special rule does or does not apply.
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Direct customer versus distinct establishment
Confirm the legal relationship, not only the country shown on the invoice. A service supplied between an Indian head office and its overseas branch, or between establishments treated as distinct persons, can fail the fifth export condition. Keep organization charts, registration details, intercompany agreements and accounting records when that relationship could be questioned.
Make the invoice and books consistent
The CBIC GST Invoice Rules prescribe invoice particulars such as the supplier’s name, address and GSTIN; a unique consecutive serial number and date; recipient particulars as applicable; the service accounting code; description; value; and relevant tax details. Service invoices ordinarily must be issued within 30 days from the date of supply, subject to the exceptions in the rules applicable to the transaction.
Use wording and values that match the contract, delivery record and accounting entry. If the invoice describes software development but the evidence shows lead generation or brokerage, the mismatch can undermine both classification and place-of-supply analysis. Keep the final invoice, amendments, credit or debit notes and proof of issue in the same file.
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Document payment, including permitted INR receipts
Do not assume that only a foreign-currency credit can qualify. CBIC Circular No. 88/07/2019-GST recognizes realization of export proceeds in Indian rupees where the Reserve Bank of India permits the arrangement. It also states that LUT acceptance for covered supplies is permissible whether payment is in Indian currency or convertible foreign exchange, provided the arrangement follows applicable RBI guidelines.
This is a qualified permission, not a blanket rule for every rupee route. Check the RBI direction applicable to the payment date, banks involved, payer and settlement mechanism. For services to Nepal or Bhutan, the circular expressly retains a convertible-foreign-exchange requirement:
“The supply of services, however, to Nepal or Bhutan will be deemed to be export of services only if the payment for such services is received by the supplier in convertible foreign exchange.”
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Keep the bank’s narration or remittance advice, the exchange-rate basis used in your books, and a reconciliation explaining any short receipt. If a group company or payment processor pays on the customer’s behalf, retain the contractual reason and documents linking that payer to the foreign recipient.
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Additional documents for an export-of-services refund
A refund application has a more specific evidence requirement than ordinary export substantiation. Under the CBIC GST Refund Rules, the statement for a refund on account of export of services calls for the number and date of invoices and the relevant BRCs or FIRCs, as applicable.
- Create a schedule listing every export invoice included in the claim, with invoice number, date, taxable value and currency.
- Match each invoice to the BRC, FIRC or other applicable remittance record and record the amount realized.
- Reconcile gross invoice value to net bank credit after bank fees, withholding, credit notes, partial receipts and exchange conversion.
- Investigate unmatched or partly realized invoices before filing; do not attach a certificate to the wrong invoice merely because the customer name is similar.
- Retain the underlying contract, service evidence, place-of-supply note and books with the refund schedule in case the officer asks how the listed supply meets section 2(6).
The exact portal screens, declarations and supporting uploads vary by claim type and current procedure. Verify the workflow in force when filing rather than relying on an old screenshot or checklist.
Documents at a glance
| Evidence item | What it helps establish | How the rules treat it |
|---|---|---|
| Service agreement, order and recipient records | Parties, recipient location, scope and receiving establishment | Practical substantiation for the statutory conditions; not a universally prescribed packet (IGST Act) |
| Service invoice | Supply identity, parties, value, date and invoice trail | Particulars and timing are governed by the invoice rules |
| Deliverables, acceptance or work records | What service was actually performed and its context | Prudent, proportionate substantiation supported by the accounts-and-records framework |
| Bank statement, remittance advice and available BRC/FIRC | Consideration and invoice-to-payment reconciliation | BRC/FIRC are expressly identified for the refund statement; payment is also a statutory export condition |
| Place-of-supply memorandum | Why section 13 places the supply outside India | Essential analysis because exceptions differ by service |
| Refund invoice/BRC/FIRC schedule | Invoice-level support for an export refund | Specifically identified by the refund rule |
A filing-ready workflow
- Classify the service. Decide whether you are supplying on your own account or arranging someone else’s supply, and identify any special section 13 rule.
- Confirm the parties. Verify the Indian supplier, foreign recipient and whether either is an establishment of the other.
- Prepare the place-of-supply note. Cite the rule used and facts supporting it.
- Issue a compliant invoice. Use the required particulars, a unique serial number and the applicable timing.
- Capture delivery evidence. Save acceptance, reports, files, correspondence or logs that demonstrate the invoiced service.
- Reconcile payment. Match bank credits and remittance documents to each invoice, documenting deductions and unusual payer or currency arrangements.
- Run a refund check, if relevant. Build the invoice-number/date and BRC/FIRC schedule before submitting the claim.
- Archive the complete chain. Keep the contract, classification note, invoice, performance proof, ledger and payment evidence together for the required record-retention period.
Common weaknesses and how to correct them
- Only a foreign address is retained. Add the contract, recipient-establishment evidence and service-performance records.
- The invoice says “consulting,” but the work is facilitation. Reassess the commercial substance and intermediary exception before treating it as an export.
- Payment is in INR with no RBI analysis. Document the permitted route and retain bank evidence; do not generalize the circular beyond its conditions.
- One remittance covers several invoices. Prepare an allocation schedule and explain exchange differences, fees and partial settlements.
- The refund schedule is incomplete. List invoice numbers and dates and match the relevant BRCs or FIRCs before filing.
- Head-office and branch records are mixed. Establish the legal relationship and test the distinct-person condition explicitly.
- Books, returns and bank records disagree. Correct the accounting trail and preserve the reason for any credit note, reversal or timing difference.
Before relying on an export position or filing a refund, verify amendments to the IGST Act, invoice and refund rules, current RBI permissions, portal instructions and the transaction-specific place-of-supply treatment. A defensible file is not a single certificate; it is a consistent chain from legal classification to service delivery, invoice, payment and, where claimed, refund documentation.
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