GST Registration in India: Who Needs It and How to Apply

GST registration becomes mandatory once your aggregate turnover crosses ₹40 lakh for goods or ₹20 lakh for services in most states — and in a handful of situations it is required no matter what your turnover is, such as selling goods through e-commerce platforms or making inter-state supplies of goods. This guide walks through exactly who needs to register, the composition scheme that lets small businesses step out of monthly compliance, the documents, the REG-01 application flow on the official portal, and the filing calendar you take on afterwards.

If you are setting up a business's money stack from scratch — current account, payment acceptance, the works — our business and MSME finance guide covers the full map; this post handles the GST leg of it. Filing your first income tax return as a business owner is a separate job, covered in our ITR filing guide.

Who has to register: the turnover thresholds

The headline thresholds have been stable since April 2019: a supplier of goods must register when aggregate turnover exceeds ₹40 lakh in a financial year, and a supplier of services at ₹20 lakh. In special category states — the north-eastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and a few others — the limits drop to ₹20 lakh for goods and ₹10 lakh for services. Source: CBIC registration FAQ and Notification No. 10/2019–Central Tax, dated March 29, 2019, as summarised on cbic-gst.gov.in.

Two definitions matter before you count your turnover. First, aggregate turnover is measured PAN-wide — all your registrations and branches across India count together, and it includes exempt supplies and export turnover, though not the GST itself. Second, the threshold is an exemption limit: below it you are not required to register, but you may do so voluntarily — a choice worth weighing, because voluntary registration brings input tax credit on your purchases along with the compliance load.

Some businesses must register regardless of turnover, under Section 24 of the CGST Act. The ones a small business actually meets in practice:

• Making inter-state supplies of goods (services have a carve-out: inter-state service suppliers below the threshold supplying through an e-commerce operator were exempted by Notification 65/2020–Central Tax — check the current text for your case).
• Selling goods through e-commerce operators such as Amazon or Flipkart — the platform collects tax at source (TCS) and needs your GSTIN.
• Being a casual taxable person — someone doing a temporary trade in another state, like a stall at an exhibition.

The composition scheme: the small-business escape hatch

Before registering as a regular taxpayer, check whether the composition scheme fits. It is a simplified levy for small businesses: you pay a flat percentage of turnover, file much less paperwork, and give up input tax credit and inter-state outward supplies. Since the April 2019 notifications, the limits run as follows: manufacturers and traders pay 1% of turnover up to ₹1.5 crore (₹75 lakh in special category states); restaurants may opt for 5%; and service providers can use 6% up to ₹50 lakh of turnover. Source: CBIC Notifications No. 2/2019–Central Tax (Rate) and No. 9/2019–Central Tax (Rate), dated March 29, 2019, cross-checked against the ICAI-era industry handbook on composition (February 2026 edition).

The maths is blunt but worth doing. A trader with ₹80 lakh turnover under composition pays roughly ₹80,000 a year in GST and files a quarterly CMP-08 plus an annual return. The same business as a regular taxpayer files GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B monthly (or quarterly under QRMP, covered below), but charges GST to customers and claims credit on purchases. Retailers selling mostly to end consumers often come out ahead under composition; businesses selling to other GST-registered businesses usually do not, because their customers want input credit and prefer a regular-registered supplier.

GST 2.0: the rate map you are joining

If you register now, the rates you charge come from the GST Council's September 2025 restructuring — the biggest since GST launched. The 56th Council meeting collapsed the old four-slab structure (5/12/18/28%) into two main slabs of 5% and 18%, with a 40% demerit rate on a short list of goods such as pan masala, aerated drinks, luxury cars and tobacco. Most everyday essentials moved to 5% or nil, and individual life and health insurance premiums went to nil. The changes took effect from September 22, 2025. Source: GST Council 56th meeting press release, September 2025 (pib.gov.in PRID 2163555 and gstcouncil.gov.in).

Documents to keep ready

For a proprietorship — still the most common structure for new businesses — the list is short: PAN and Aadhaar of the proprietor, a photograph, proof of the principal place of business (electricity bill or property tax receipt, plus a rent agreement and owner's no-objection letter if rented), and bank proof such as a cancelled cheque or the first page of a statement. Partnerships and companies add the certificate of incorporation or partnership deed, the authorised signatory's details, and a digital signature for companies and LLPs. Having clean scans of all of these before you start is the single best predictor of a smooth application.

Step-by-step: the REG-01 application

Registration happens on the official portal — gst.gov.in — and is free; the government charges no fee for registration itself.

1. Part A. Under Services → Registration → New Registration, enter your PAN, mobile number and email. The portal verifies both with OTPs and issues a Temporary Reference Number (TRN). You have 15 days from the TRN to complete Part B, so do not start casually.
2. Part B. Log back in with the TRN and fill the business profile: the legal name pulled from PAN, trade name, constitution of business, principal and any additional places of business, the goods or services you deal in (HSN or SAC codes), bank details, and the authorised signatory. Upload the document scans here.
3. Aadhaar authentication. The proprietor or partners authenticate their Aadhaar on the portal. If Aadhaar is authenticated and no discrepancy shows up, the registration is typically approved without a physical site verification; without Aadhaar authentication, the proper officer can order one, which is where weeks of delay usually come from.
4. ARN and approval. Submitting generates an Application Reference Number. The proper officer must approve within seven working days of submission — and if no query or rejection issues within that window, the registration is deemed granted. Source: Rule 9(1) of the CGST Rules, 2017 (taxinformation.cbic.gov.in). The GSTIN and registration certificate (Form REG-06) appear on the portal.

Most rejections trace to five things: the name on the application not matching PAN records, poor-quality scans, address proof that does not match the declared principal place, bank details that fail penny-drop verification, and Aadhaar authentication left pending. All five are avoidable at the document-preparation stage.

Your GSTIN, decoded

The 15-character GSTIN you receive is not random: the first two digits are your state code, the next ten are your PAN, the twelfth digit is the entity number for that PAN in that state, the thirteenth is almost always Z, and the last is a checksum. The PAN embedded in the middle is why aggregate turnover is measured PAN-wide — every GSTIN you ever hold feeds the same underlying PAN. Source: GST portal registration documentation.

After registration: the filing calendar

Regular registration puts you on a monthly rhythm by default: GSTR-1, reporting outward supplies, is due by the 11th of the following month, and GSTR-3B, the summary return where tax actually gets paid and input credit gets claimed, by the 20th. Your input credit is reconciled against GSTR-2B — the auto-drafted statement of what your suppliers reported — so a supplier who does not file becomes your problem; checking 2B against purchase records before filing 3B is the habit that prevents notices. Businesses with turnover above ₹5 crore also generate e-invoices for B2B supplies through the Invoice Registration Portal. Source: GST portal returns documentation and GSTN e-invoicing advisories.

Two reliefs bend that rhythm. First, the QRMP scheme: taxpayers with aggregate turnover up to ₹5 crore can opt to file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B quarterly, paying tax monthly through a simple PMT-06 challan — with an optional Invoice Furnishing Facility for month-end invoices to large buyers. Source: QRMP FAQ on the GST portal (tutorial.gst.gov.in). Second, the late fee for missing GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B is ₹50 per day (₹20 per day for nil returns), capped per return by turnover slab — commonly ₹2,000, ₹5,000 or ₹10,000 depending on your annual turnover band. Source: Section 47, CGST Act 2017 read with the CBIC late-fee notifications; the per-day figures are cross-checked against independent tax publications as on 3 Nov 2026 — the official notification page was not fetchable at verification time.

What registration actually buys you

Beyond staying legal past the threshold, a GSTIN does three practical things: it lets you claim input tax credit on purchases (regular scheme only), it lets other businesses buy from you and recover the GST, and it is a hard requirement for selling goods on marketplaces. It also comes with an honest cost — roughly one to two return filings a month of attention, or a professional's fee if you outsource. For a business under the threshold selling locally to consumers, staying unregistered and revisiting at ₹35-40 lakh of turnover is a legitimate strategy; the compulsion should be what pulls you in, not FOMO.

Common questions, answered briefly

Registration is not a one-time project but an ongoing system: keep the document trail from day one, file on time even in zero-sale months (a nil return costs less than the late fee), and reconcile 2B monthly. The compliance rhythm is the real price of GST; the scheme exists to keep it short for businesses small enough to qualify.