GST for restaurants · 5-minute read
IGST or CGST + SGST? Place of supply for restaurants, delivery and outdoor catering
In short: For restaurant and catering services the place of supply is where the service is actually performed — not where the customer is from. Food served or prepared at your restaurant is supplied in your state, so it is CGST + SGST even when the customer is a company registered in another state. Only when you perform the service somewhere else — catering an event across the border — is the supply inter-state and taxed as IGST. Packaged food couriered to another state is a supply of goods, with the goods rule instead.
Reviewed 2026-10-16. General information, not tax advice — confirm with your CA.
The rule
Section 12(4) of the IGST Act fixes the place of supply of restaurant and catering services as the location where the services are actually performed. Whether the tax is CGST + SGST or IGST then follows from comparing that location with the state you are registered in: same state → intra-state → CGST + SGST; different state → inter-state → IGST.
Common situations
| Situation | Place of supply | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| A Mumbai-registered company’s staff eat at your Delhi restaurant and ask for a B2B invoice | Delhi — where served | CGST + SGST (Delhi). Their Maharashtra GSTIN goes on the invoice; it does not change the tax |
| Home delivery within your state | Your kitchen’s state | CGST + SGST |
| Delivery of cooked food to an address just across the state border (e.g. Delhi kitchen, Gurugram address) | Where the service is performed — treated as your kitchen’s state in practice; confirm with your CA for regular cross-border delivery | Usually CGST + SGST |
| Outdoor catering at a wedding or office event in another state | The event’s state | IGST |
| Outdoor catering at an event in your own state for a client registered elsewhere | The event’s state = yours | CGST + SGST |
| Sealed, packaged food couriered to a customer in another state (no service at their end) | Goods rule: where delivery ends | IGST, with the goods HSN and rate, not SAC 996331 |
The mistake that costs money is charging IGST because the buyer is “from outside the state”. The buyer’s location is the rule for most services; for restaurants and caterers it is explicitly the place of performance. Charge IGST on a Delhi dinner to a Mumbai company and the company cannot claim it, and you have paid the wrong head.
What the invoice must show
- For an inter-state supply: the place of supply with the state name, and IGST as a single tax line.
- For intra-state: CGST and SGST as two lines at half the rate each (2.5% + 2.5% for the 5% rate).
- The buyer’s GSTIN when they are registered — it decides B2B vs B2C in GSTR-1, not the tax head.
- If you cater in another state often enough, ask your CA whether a casual taxable person registration in that state is needed.
What Rikaab does with all of this
Rikaab works out CGST + SGST or IGST per invoice from the place of supply — your outlet’s state for restaurant service, the event’s state for outdoor catering — prints the state name and the right tax lines, and puts the sale in the right GSTR-1 table. A registered buyer’s GSTIN moves the invoice to B2B without touching the tax.
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