SAC Codes for Logistics Services: Freight, Warehousing and Demurrage

An accounts payable clerk opens a forwarder's bill with five lines: road freight, loading, thirty days of storage, a cargo-handling fee and a container detention recharge. The vendor printed 996511 on every line, and the ERP copied its default tax code onto all five. Two months later the tax team finds reverse charge missed on the freight, warehousing coded as transport, and a detention line nobody can classify.

SAC mapping for logistics is a bounded job. The GST services scheme has a fixed list of six-digit codes for transport and support services, and the rate notification attaches each to a rate entry. This guide maps common logistics charges to their codes, explains the GTA rate and reverse charge choice, shows how to handle demurrage when no code names it, and builds the result into ERP charge masters.

How the GST services scheme numbers a logistics charge

Every service code has three layers: a four-digit heading, a five-digit group and a six-digit code. Logistics charges sit mostly in Heading 9965 for goods transport, Heading 9967 for supporting services in transport and Heading 9968 for postal and courier services.

The scheme is the annexure to Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate), and the notification applies the interpretation rules of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, so far as they fit. In practice that means the most specific description wins over a general one, which is why a refrigerated storage invoice should not carry the catch-all storage code.

• Heading level, 9967: Supporting services in transport, the umbrella for handling, storage, terminal and agency services.
• Group level, 99672: Storage and warehousing services, which holds three codes.
• Service code, 996729: Other storage and warehousing services, the code behind the frequent search "SAC 996729".
• Rate entry: A separate table in the same notification that sets the rate for each heading or described service.

If you are still comparing carrier offers, our guide to running a comparable carrier tender covers price normalisation; this article starts after award, when the bill arrives and each line needs a tax code.

Heading 9965 codes for moving goods by road, rail, pipe, sea and air

Heading 9965 covers the carriage itself. The scheme splits it into land, water and air groups, and the six-digit codes follow the mode, not the vehicle owner or the contract name on the bill.

The last two rows are the common traps. A fleet owner who rents a truck with driver for a day is renting a vehicle, not necessarily transporting goods, and a courier bill sits in Heading 9968 even when the parcel travels by air.

Heading 9967 codes for handling, storage and terminal services

Heading 9967 holds everything that supports the movement without being the movement. Its groups separate cargo handling, storage, mode-specific terminal services and agency services, and each has a residual code ending in 9 for anything not described elsewhere.

• Cargo handling, group 99671: 996711 container handling, 996712 customs house agent services, 996713 clearing and forwarding, 996719 other cargo and baggage handling.
• Storage, group 99672: 996721 refrigerated storage, 996722 bulk liquid or gas storage, 996729 other storage and warehousing.
• Road support, group 99674: 996743 parking lot services, 996744 towing, 996749 other road support.
• Port support, group 99675: 996751 port and waterway operation excluding cargo handling, 996752 pilotage and berthing.
• Airport support, group 99676: 996761 airport operation excluding cargo handling, 996763 other air transport support.
• Other support, group 99679: 996791 and 996792 for goods transport agency, 996793 other goods transport services, 996799 other supporting services.

Port and airport operation codes both say "excluding cargo handling" in the scheme. A terminal bill that mixes berth hire and container lifts therefore needs two lines, 996751 and 996711, rather than one blended code.

Choosing between 996729, 996721 and 996722 for warehouse invoices

Code 996729 is correct only when the stored goods need neither refrigeration nor bulk liquid or gas storage. Cold rooms bill under 996721, and tank farms holding fuel, chemicals or gases bill under 996722.

Warehousing invoices under the GST Scheme of Classification of Services use 996721 for refrigerated storage, 996722 for bulk liquid or gas storage and 996729 for other storage. Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate) applies its residual Heading 9967 entry at 9% CGST plus 9% SGST to these codes, 18% in total.

Value-added work inside a warehouse needs its own look. Packing goods for a client appears in the scheme as 998540, packaging services of goods for others, under Heading 9985 support services, not under storage. When a 3PL bills storage and kitting as one monthly fee, ask for a split so each part carries its own code and rate.

GTA consignment notes, the 5% or 18% option and reverse charge

A road carrier becomes a goods transport agency when it issues a consignment note, by whatever name called; that definition in Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate) decides whether the GTA rate entry and reverse charge apply.

• Rate options since 22 September 2025: The 56th GST Council FAQs state GTA freight stays at 5% without input tax credit, with an option to charge 18% with full credit.
• Who pays under reverse charge: Notification 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate) shifts the tax to recipients such as a factory, a registered person or a body corporate, unless the GTA has opted for forward charge.
• Opting out of reverse charge: A GTA that wants forward charge files a declaration before the financial year; check the current window in the amended notification.
• Container trains: The same FAQs give container train operators a choice of 5% without credit or 18% with full credit.
• Multimodal moves: 5% with restricted credit where no leg is by air, and 18% with full credit once an air leg is involved.

Goods transport agency freight in India carries 5% GST without input tax credit, under reverse or forward charge, or 18% with full credit if the GTA opts in, according to the 56th GST Council FAQs effective 22 September 2025. A consignment note is what makes a road carrier a GTA.

Loading and unloading billed by the same GTA usually follow the freight. Circular 234/28/2024-GST, issued on 11 October 2024, treats ancillary services a GTA provides in the course of transport as part of the composite transport supply and says the method of invoicing will not generally change that, so listing them separately on the invoice does not by itself split them out; services outside the course of transport and invoiced separately are not part of it.

Demurrage, detention and port storage fees without a dedicated code

No code in the scheme names demurrage or detention, and the circulars reviewed for this guide do not classify either. The defensible approach is to record what the charge pays for, then apply the principle the CBIC has published for comparable charges.

Circular 178/10/2022-GST distinguishes two cases. Where a payment is really consideration for a facility ancillary to the main supply, it is assessed as that principal supply; paragraph 11.3 applies this to cancellation fees. Where a payment only compensates a loss from breach, with no agreement to tolerate the act, it is not consideration for a supply.

• Who billed it: A port, a container freight station, a shipping line, a railway or the GTA itself.
• What it pays for: Continued use of a container, wagon or yard space, or a penalty for late return under the contract.
• Tie to a principal supply: Whether the charge arises in the course of a transport or storage service already on the same contract.
• Evidence to keep: Free-time terms, gate-in and gate-out times, and the tariff or contract clause; our guide to separating demurrage, detention and terminal storage covers the operational proof.

Building SAC into the ERP charge master and invoice lines

Store the SAC on the charge code, not on the vendor. Every rate-card line in a freight or warehousing contract should map to one charge code that carries its SAC, rate entry and tax mode, so the ERP assigns tax per line instead of copying a vendor default.

Rule 46 of the CGST Rules requires a tax invoice to show the code for goods or services, and Notification 78/2020-Central Tax sets the digits from 1 April 2021: four where prior-year aggregate turnover is up to ₹5 crore, six above it. Six digits suit every logistics line because the useful distinctions, such as 996721 against 996729, only appear at that level.

[
  {
    "chargeCode": "WH-STORE-AMB",
    "description": "Ambient storage per pallet-day",
    "sac": "996729",
    "rateEntry": "Heading 9967 residual",
    "gstRatePct": 18,
    "taxMode": "FORWARD",
    "validFrom": "2025-09-22"
  },
  {
    "chargeCode": "FRT-ROAD-GTA",
    "description": "Road freight with consignment note",
    "sac": "996791",
    "rateEntry": "GTA entry, Heading 9965",
    "gstRatePct": 5,
    "taxMode": "RCM_UNLESS_VENDOR_FORWARD_DECLARATION",
    "validFrom": "2025-09-22"
  },
  {
    "chargeCode": "CTR-DETENTION",
    "description": "Container detention beyond free days",
    "sac": null,
    "status": "HOLD_FOR_TAX_REVIEW",
    "evidenceRequired": ["free-time clause", "gate-out time", "gate-in time"]
  }
]

For the accounts payable side of GTA bills, including month-end accruals across many consignment notes, see our guide to freight payables with GTA reverse and forward charge.

A misclassified forwarder bill, traced from receipt to correction

The sequence below is illustrative, with invented document numbers, but it shows the usual chain: one wrong default on the vendor master spreads to every line, and the error surfaces only at the tax review.

1. Day 1, 09:40: Forwarder bill FWD/2611/0187 arrives with SAC 996511 on all five lines, including storage and a ₹22,000 container detention recharge.
2. Day 1, 09:55: The ERP applies the vendor-master tax code, 18% forward charge, to every line; the match passes because amounts agree with the purchase order.
3. Day 1, 16:30: Posting completes; detention lands in freight expense with input tax credit claimed.
4. Day 20 of the next month: The tax review finds no forward-charge declaration on the bill, so ₹1,28,000 of freight and loading should have been reverse charge at 5%, a ₹6,400 liability missed.
5. Controlled version: Charge codes assign SAC per line, GTA lines without a declaration route to reverse charge, and the detention line waits in a review queue.

Worked invoice in rupees, with the US column marked not applicable

The bill below re-codes the forwarder invoice from the trace, using illustrative amounts for a registered manufacturer buying within one state. The US column stays empty by design, because there is no federal GST or service code to compare against.

Compared with the original posting, the vendor-charged tax falls from ₹36,900 at 18% on everything, including the held line, to ₹9,900, while ₹6,400 moves to reverse charge. Whether the detention line attracts tax waits for the documented position described above.

What the ERP enforces, what software suggests, and a review list

Code lookup, rate and reverse charge tests are table-driven and should block posting when they fail. Reading free-text carrier descriptions and judging demurrage are where software can suggest and a person must decide.

Logistics charge masters in an ERP should store the six-digit SAC, the rate entry and the tax mode per charge code, because rule 46(g) of the CGST Rules requires a code on each tax invoice and Notification 78/2020-Central Tax requires six digits above ₹5 crore turnover.

Related transport tax and billing guides are collected in our logistics section. If you want the charge-code mapping built into your freight and warehouse billing flow, share your requirements and we will scope it against the checks above.