Goods and Service Tax (GST) is an indirect tax that has to be collected from customers when goods are sold or services are provided. The government in the year 2017 abolished various indirect taxes like VAT, Excise duty, Octroi, Service Tax, etc and introduced the GST Act.

Obtaining GST registration is mandatory for every organization or company doing a business turnover that exceeds the specified limits or falls under chapter 6 of the GST Act. A dual system of GST is implemented in India, whereby Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) and State Goods and Service Tax (SGST) is levied on the supply of goods and services.

A business entity that is not registered under the GST Act will not be allowed to collect taxes from customers and is also not permitted to avail the tax credit of GST paid by him. However, GST becomes mandatory to apply when the revenues exceed the limits mentioned in the act per annum based on the state category.

The idea behind the GST Act in India is to bring all businesses, consultants, service providers, and freelancers under one single tax system, in which they sell goods or provide services.

The criteria for people that are required to be registered under GST is provided under Chapter 6 of the GST Act. As per the GST Act, the following persons are obliged to obtain GST registration:

Aggregate Turnover Criteria : Limit for sale of goods

Turnover : Exceeds Rs. 40 lakh
Applicable state : All states of India except Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand.

Turnover : Exceeds Rs. 20 lakh
Applicable state : Jammu and Kashmir, puducherry, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, arunachalpradesh, uttarakhand.

Aggregate Turnover Criteria : Limit for service provider

Turnover : Exceeds Rs. 20 lakh
Applicable state : All states of India except Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand.

Turnover : Exceeds Rs. 10 lakh
Applicable state : Jammu and Kashmir, puducherry, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, arunachalpradesh, uttarakhand.

• Interstate suppliers:
• Inter-state supply is supplying goods from one state to another. Hence, any taxable person who is involved in supplying goods to anyone outside the state is required to obtain GST registration.


• Casual taxable persons:
• A casual taxable person is an individual who supplies goods or services on an occasional basis and does not have a fixed place of business over there. A casual taxable person is required to obtain compulsory registration irrespective of the aggregate turnover in the previous year. An exemption has been given to a person engaged in the supply of “handicraft goods”.


• Person liable to pay tax on reverse charge basis:
• In some cases, the liability to pay tax (GST) would levy with the recipient of the goods or services, instead of the supplier. Any person who is liable to pay tax under the reverse charge basis is mandatorily required to obtain GST registration and pay tax accordingly.


• Non-resident taxable persons:
• A non-resident person who is making any taxable supply in the taxable territory is required to register under the GST regime.


• Persons required to deduct TDS/TCS under GST
• A person who is required to deduct TDS/TCS under GST (Goods and Service) Act is required to get itself registered under GST compulsorily.


• Input service distributors:
• An Input Service Distributor (ISD) is a business that receives an invoice for services used by them or their branches. It is not involved in the supply of goods or services directly. All the ISD are responsible for passing the GST credits received by them to their branches monthly. It is mandatory for all the ISD to obtain registration under the GST Act as an ISD.


• Individuals making a sale as an agent or principal:
• Any person who makes a taxable supply of goods or services on behalf of other people such as brokers, agents, dealers, distributors, etc are obliged to obtain the GST registration irrespective of their turnover.


• Suppliers involved in supply goods through e-commerce operator:
• A supplier/business making a supply of its goods through an electronic commerce operator is required to get themselves registered under GST.


• Every e-commerce operator who provides a platform to suppliers through its portal:
• E-commerce operators who allow others to make a supply of goods or services through their portal are required to obtain the GST registration.


• Online service providers providing service from outside India to a non-registered person in India:
• A person/company supplying online information, database access or retrieval from outside India is instructed to get itself registered under GST irrespective of the turnover in the previous year. E.g. Netflix has to get itself registered and pay taxes under normal charges for providing services from outside of India.