How a GST Registered Person Maintain Accounts

Rule- 56 of CGST Rules 2017

56. Main­te­nance of accounts by registered — 

(1) Every reg­is­tered per­son shall keep and main­tain, in addi­tion to the par­tic­u­lars men­tioned in sub-sec­tion (1) of sec­tion 35, a true and cor­rect account of the goods or ser­vices import­ed or export­ed or of sup­plies attract­ing pay­ment of tax on reverse charge along with the rel­e­vant doc­u­ments, includ­ing invoic­es, bills of sup­ply, deliv­ery chal­lans, cred­it notes, deb­it notes, receipt vouch­ers, pay­ment vouch­ers and refund vouchers.

• Every reg­is­tered per­son, oth­er than a per­son pay­ing tax under sec­tion 10, shall main­tain the accounts of stock in respect of goods received and sup­plied by him, and such accounts shall con­tain par­tic­u­lars of the open­ing bal­ance, receipt, sup­ply, goods lost, stolen, destroyed, writ­ten off or dis­posed of by way of gift or free sam­ple and the bal­ance of stock includ­ing raw mate­ri­als, fin­ished goods, scrap and wastage
• Every reg­is­tered per­son shall keep and main­tain a sep­a­rate account of advances received, paid and adjust­ments made
• Every reg­is­tered per­son, oth­er than a per­son pay­ing tax under sec­tion 10, shall keep and main­tain an account, con­tain­ing the details of tax payable (includ­ing tax payable in accor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of sub-sec­tion (3) and sub-sec­tion (4) of sec­tion 9), tax col­lect­ed and paid, input tax, input tax cred­it claimed, togeth­er with a reg­is­ter of tax invoice, cred­it notes, deb­it notes, deliv­ery chal­lan issued or received dur­ing any tax
• Every reg­is­tered per­son shall keep the par­tic­u­lars of — 
  • names and com­plete address­es of sup­pli­ers from whom he has received the goods or ser­vices charge­able to tax under the Act;
  • names and com­plete address­es of the per­sons to whom he has sup­plied goods or ser­vices, where required under the pro­vi­sions of this Chapter;
  • the com­plete address of the premis­es where goods are stored by him, includ­ing goods stored dur­ing tran­sit along with the par­tic­u­lars of the stock stored

• If any tax­able goods are found to be stored at any place(s) oth­er than those declared under sub-rule (5) with­out the cov­er of any valid doc­u­ments, the prop­er offi­cer shall deter­mine the amount of tax payable on such goods as if such goods have been sup­plied by the reg­is­tered person.
• Every reg­is­tered per­son shall keep the books of account at the prin­ci­pal place of busi­ness and books of account relat­ing to addi­tion­al place of busi­ness men­tioned in his cer­tifi­cate of reg­is­tra­tion and such books of account shall include any elec­tron­ic form of data stored on any electronic
• Any entry in reg­is­ters, accounts and doc­u­ments shall not be erased, effaced or over­writ­ten, and all incor­rect entries, oth­er­wise than those of cler­i­cal nature, shall be scored out under

attes­ta­tion and there­after, the cor­rect entry shall be record­ed and where the reg­is­ters and oth­er doc­u­ments are main­tained elec­tron­i­cal­ly, a log of every entry edit­ed or delet­ed shall be maintained.

• Each vol­ume of books of account main­tained man­u­al­ly by the reg­is­tered per­son shall be serially
• Unless proved oth­er­wise, if any doc­u­ments, reg­is­ters, or any books of account belong­ing to a reg­is­tered per­son are found at any premis­es oth­er than those men­tioned in the cer­tifi­cate of reg­is­tra­tion, they shall be pre­sumed to be main­tained by the said registered
• Every agent referred to in clause (5) of sec­tion 2 shall main­tain accounts depict­ing the,- 
  • par­tic­u­lars of autho­ri­sa­tion received by him from each prin­ci­pal to receive  or  sup­ply goods or ser­vices on behalf of such prin­ci­pal separately;
  • par­tic­u­lars includ­ing descrip­tion, val­ue and quan­ti­ty (wher­ev­er applic­a­ble) of goods or ser­vices received on behalf of every principal;
  • par­tic­u­lars includ­ing descrip­tion, val­ue and quan­ti­ty (wher­ev­er applic­a­ble) of goods or ser­vices sup­plied on behalf of every principal;
  • details of accounts fur­nished to every prin­ci­pal; and
  • tax paid on receipts or on sup­ply of goods or ser­vices effect­ed on behalf of every principal.

• Every reg­is­tered per­son man­u­fac­tur­ing goods shall main­tain month­ly pro­duc­tion accounts show­ing quan­ti­ta­tive details of raw mate­ri­als or ser­vices used in the man­u­fac­ture and quan­ti­ta­tive details of the goods so man­u­fac­tured includ­ing the waste and by products
• Every reg­is­tered per­son sup­ply­ing ser­vices shall main­tain the accounts show­ing quan­ti­ta­tive details of goods used in the pro­vi­sion of ser­vices, details of input ser­vices utilised and the ser­vices supplied.
• Every reg­is­tered per­son exe­cut­ing works con­tract shall keep sep­a­rate accounts for works con­tract showing — 
  • the names and address­es of the per­sons on whose behalf the works con­tract is executed;
  • descrip­tion, val­ue and quan­ti­ty (wher­ev­er applic­a­ble) of goods or ser­vices received for the exe­cu­tion of works contract;
  • descrip­tion, val­ue and quan­ti­ty (wher­ev­er applic­a­ble) of goods or ser­vices uti­lized in the exe­cu­tion of works contract;
  • the details of pay­ment received in respect of each works con­tract; and
  • the names and address­es of sup­pli­ers from whom he received goods or

• The records under the pro­vi­sions of this Chap­ter may be main­tained in elec­tron­ic form and the record so main­tained shall be authen­ti­cat­ed by means of a digital
• Accounts main­tained by the reg­is­tered per­son togeth­er with all the invoic­es, bills of sup­ply, cred­it and deb­it notes, and deliv­ery chal­lans relat­ing to stocks, deliv­er­ies, inward

sup­ply and out­ward sup­ply shall be pre­served for the peri­od as pro­vid­ed in sec­tion 36 and shall, where such accounts and doc­u­ments are main­tained man­u­al­ly, be kept at every relat­ed place of busi­ness men­tioned in the cer­tifi­cate of reg­is­tra­tion and shall be acces­si­ble at every relat­ed place of busi­ness where such accounts and doc­u­ments are main­tained digitally.

• Any per­son hav­ing cus­tody over the goods in the capac­i­ty of a car­ri­er or a clear­ing and for­ward­ing agent for deliv­ery or dis­patch there­of to a recip­i­ent on behalf of any reg­is­tered per­son shall main­tain true and cor­rect records in respect of such goods han­dled by him on behalf of such reg­is­tered per­son and shall pro­duce the details there­of as and when required by the proper

Every reg­is­tered per­son shall, on demand, pro­duce the books of accounts which he is required to main­tain under any law for the time being in force.