Quotation format

Nothing in Indian tax law prescribes a format. Rule 46 of the CGST Rules governs the tax invoice and nothing else, so a quotation is whatever you make it — which means the content is a commercial decision rather than a compliance one. In practice a quotation that avoids arguments carries:

• A quotation number in its own series. Not from the invoice book: Rule 46(b) requires that series to be consecutive and unique for the financial year, and numbers spent on quotes that never convert leave gaps in it.
• A validity date. The single most valuable line on the document. See below.
• Scope, and explicit exclusions. What is not included is what the argument will be about.
• Whether tax is extra or included, and at what rate, with the note that the rate applicable is the one in force at the time of supply.
• Payment terms, and what happens to the price if the schedule slips.

Offer, or invitation to treat?

Section 2(a) of the Indian Contract Act 1872: a proposal is made when “one person signifies to another his willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything, with a view to obtaining the assent of that other to such act or abstinence.”

Whether your quotation is a proposal in that sense, or merely an invitation to treat, decides whether a one-line reply can bind you. The case Indian courts routinely apply is Harvey v Facey [1893] AC 552: a telegram answering an enquiry with “Lowest price for Bumper Hall Pen £900” was held not to be an offer, so the reply “We agree to buy” formed no contract. A bare price in answer to a question is usually an invitation to treat. A document that sets out the scope, the quantity, the delivery and the payment terms and invites the client to accept looks very much like an offer — which is fine, as long as you intended it.

Why the validity date is the most important line

Section 6 of the Contract Act revokes a proposal “by the lapse of the time prescribed in such proposal for its acceptance”. That is what a validity date does: it makes the lapse automatic and certain.

Leave it off and Section 6(2) applies instead — the proposal lapses after “a reasonable time”, an amount nobody can tell you in advance because it is decided afterwards, in hindsight, by whoever is resolving the dispute. That is the gap a client walks through when they resurface months later holding your old price, after your costs or the tax rate have moved.

The generator on this page labels that field Valid until rather than “due date”, and prints it that way, because a quotation is not asking to be paid.

Can you take it back?

Section 5: a proposal may be revoked at any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer, but not afterwards. India has no general firm-offer doctrine — writing “valid for 30 days” does not, by itself, stop you withdrawing inside those thirty days. It does have to be communicated. A revocation the client never received is not a revocation.

The purchase order trap

This is where quotations actually cost people money. Section 7 requires acceptance to be “absolute and unqualified”. A purchase order that changes the price, the scope, the delivery date or the payment terms is therefore not an acceptance at all — it is a counter-offer, and your original quotation is dead.

Then Section 8: “Performance of the conditions of a proposal, or the acceptance of any consideration for a reciprocal promise which may be offered with a proposal, is an acceptance of the proposal.” Starting work against that PO, or banking the advance that came with it, accepts their terms. Not yours. The contract you are now in is the one written on the purchase order, including the payment terms you did not read.

The habit worth forming is dull and effective: compare the PO against the quotation line by line before anyone starts, and if it differs, say so in writing before you begin.

Email is enough

Section 10A of the Information Technology Act 2000 provides that where proposals, acceptances and revocations are expressed in electronic form, the contract is not unenforceable on that ground alone. A quotation sent and accepted by email is a contract. Nothing needs to be signed on paper.

The tax, briefly

No GST arises on issuing a quotation — the time of supply under Sections 12(2) and 13(2) turns on the invoice and the payment, not on a quote. Two things follow. Do not promise a rate: Section 14 fixes the rate applicable at the time of supply, and the slabs changed on 22 September 2025, so “price includes 18% GST” honoured months later can be a real loss. And if the client pays before you supply, a receipt voucher becomes due — that chain is set out here. When the work is done, the document you issue is a tax invoice.