GST Registration Process in India

Quick answer

GST registration is an online application in FORM GST REG-01 with no statutory fee. You must apply within thirty days of becoming liable — on turnover under section 22, or regardless of turnover under section 24. Rule 9(1) gives the officer seven working days to approve, or thirty days with physical verification where Aadhaar authentication is missing or the application is risk-flagged. You get a GSTIN in FORM GST REG-06.

Who this guide is for

You are about to cross a turnover threshold, or a marketplace has told you to produce a GSTIN, or a client is refusing to raise a purchase order until you have one. You want to know exactly what the law requires, what the portal will ask for, how long it genuinely takes, and what happens when something goes wrong.

This guide is written from the CGST Act 2017 and the CGST Rules 2017 as published on CBIC's own repository, checked on 19 August 2026. Where the rule is clear it says so plainly. Where the position could not be verified from a government source, it says that too, rather than filling the gap with a plausible number.

If you only need the checklist of documents, the documents checklist for GST registration is the shorter read, and our registration checklist tool walks the same decisions in order. If your question is really "what will this cost and how long will it take", that is answered in detail in GST registration fees and timeline.

Before you apply, settle whether you are actually liable

Most bad registrations start here — someone registers because a customer asked, without checking whether the law required it, and then discovers that a registration brings a permanent monthly filing obligation with it.

Aggregate turnover is a PAN-level, all-India number

Section 2(6) of the CGST Act defines aggregate turnover as the aggregate value of all taxable supplies (excluding inward supplies on which the recipient pays under reverse charge), exempt supplies, exports of goods or services or both, and inter-State supplies of persons having the same Permanent Account Number, to be computed on an all-India basis, excluding the GST itself.

Read that definition slowly, because three things in it routinely surprise people.

It is computed per PAN, across the whole country. If you run a proprietorship in Jaipur and a second proprietorship in Indore under the same PAN, they are one aggregate turnover. Two separate GST registrations do not create two separate thresholds.

It includes exempt supplies and exports. A consultant with ₹14 lakh of taxable Indian billings and ₹9 lakh of exported services has an aggregate turnover of ₹23 lakh, not ₹14 lakh, and is over the ₹20 lakh line — even though exports are zero-rated and the exempt work carries no tax.

It excludes inward supplies on which you pay under reverse charge. That is the one item that comes out, and it is a much narrower carve-out than the phrase "turnover" suggests.

The turnover thresholds, State by State

Here is where most published guidance goes wrong, and the error is not small.

Section 22(1) sets the threshold at ₹20 lakh, with a first proviso dropping it to ₹10 lakh for "special category States". The ₹40 lakh figure everybody quotes is not in section 22 at all — it is an exemption notified under section 23(2) by Notification 10/2019-Central Tax dated 7 March 2019, in force from 1 April 2019, and it applies only to a person "engaged in exclusive supply of goods".

Then there is the definition problem. Explanation (iii) to section 22 says "special category States" means the States in Article 279A(4)(g) of the Constitution except Jammu and Kashmir, and except Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. Article 279A(4)(g) lists eleven States. Take seven out, and four are left.

Two rows in that table deserve explanation, because you will find them stated incorrectly almost everywhere.

The ₹10 lakh threshold now survives in four States only — Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were written out of the "special category States" definition by the CGST (Amendment) Act 2018 with effect from 1 February 2019, and Jammu and Kashmir earlier still. A trader in Shillong is on ₹20 lakh, not ₹10 lakh.

Six States and UTs sit at ₹20 lakh for goods without being special-category States. Notification 10/2019-Central Tax excludes intra-State supplies in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand from the ₹40 lakh exemption. Telangana and Puducherry are on that list purely by their own choice, and a goods trader in Hyderabad is therefore on ₹20 lakh while an identical trader in Vijayawada is on ₹40 lakh.

Three further limits sit inside Notification 10/2019 itself. The ₹40 lakh exemption does not apply to anyone required to register under section 24; it does not apply to suppliers of ice cream and other edible ice, pan masala, or tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes; and it does not apply to anyone who has already registered voluntarily under section 25(3) or who wants to keep an existing registration.

And "exclusive supply of goods" means what it says. The Explanation to section 22(1) allows one narrow tolerance — a person still counts as exclusively supplying goods if the only service is exempt interest or discount on deposits, loans or advances. Any other service, however small, drops the business back to ₹20 lakh. A hardware dealer who also charges a ₹2,000 installation fee is not in exclusive supply of goods.

Registration that has nothing to do with turnover

Section 24 opens with "Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) of section 22", which is statutory language for: the threshold does not apply to you. The categories are:

• persons making any inter-State taxable supply
• casual taxable persons making taxable supply
• persons required to pay tax under reverse charge
• persons required to pay tax under section 9(5)
• non-resident taxable persons making taxable supply
• persons required to deduct tax at source under section 51, whether or not separately registered
• agents supplying goods or services on behalf of other taxable persons
• Input Service Distributors, whether or not separately registered
• persons supplying through an e-commerce operator required to collect tax at source under section 52, other than supplies specified under section 9(5)
• every e-commerce operator required to collect tax at source under section 52
• suppliers of online information and database access or retrieval services from outside India to an unregistered person in India
• suppliers of online money gaming from a place outside India to a person in India
• any other person or class of persons notified on the Council's recommendation

Two of those limbs have notified exemptions — and the relief splits goods from services

This is where a lot of guidance goes wrong in the opposite direction, by treating section 24 as absolute. Two of its limbs have been narrowed by notification, and the relief is not the same for goods as for services.

Inter-State supply of taxable services — exempt below the ordinary threshold. Notification 10/2017-Integrated Tax dated 13 October 2017, issued under IGST section 20 read with CGST section 23(2), specifies "persons making inter-State supplies of taxable services and having an aggregate turnover, to be computed on all India basis, not exceeding an amount of twenty lakh rupees in a financial year as the category of persons exempted from obtaining registration", with a proviso reducing that to ₹10 lakh for special category States. Notification 03/2019-Integrated Tax, in force 1 February 2019, amended only which States get the ₹10 lakh figure — pointing it at the first proviso to section 22(1) read with Explanation (iii), which is the four-State list above. The amounts are unchanged.

Read the scope carefully: this covers services only. A trader shipping goods across a State border is not covered by it and remains squarely inside section 24(i).

Supply of goods through an e-commerce operator — exempt, but on eight conditions. Notification 34/2023-Central Tax dated 31 July 2023, in force 1 October 2023, exempts persons supplying goods through an e-commerce operator required to collect tax at source under section 52, whose aggregate turnover in the preceding and the current financial year does not exceed the section 22(1) threshold — subject to conditions that must all hold:

• no inter-State supply of goods
• supply through an e-commerce operator in one State or Union territory only
• the person must hold a PAN
• PAN, place of business and State or Union territory must be declared on the common portal before supplying, for validation
• an enrolment number must have been granted on successful PAN validation
• not more than one enrolment number per State or Union territory
• no supply may be made before the enrolment number is granted
• the enrolment number lapses from the effective date of any registration under section 25

The first condition is the one that bites. A marketplace seller who ships to a customer in another State is outside this exemption and back under section 24, whatever their turnover — and shipping interstate is what most marketplace sellers do. That is why GST for e-commerce sellers is a different conversation from ordinary turnover-based registration.

The services exemption is why the analysis for freelancers is usually narrower than it first looks. A service exported on foreign invoices and a service supplied to a client in the next State are treated very differently, and both differ again from a service supplied within your own State. We work through that split in GST for freelancers and consultants.

The safe way to use all of this: treat section 24 as the default, then check whether one of these two notified exemptions actually covers your facts — including every one of the eight conditions if you are a marketplace seller. Being wrong in either direction is expensive. Registering unnecessarily buys a permanent filing obligation; not registering when required runs into everything in the penalties section below.

Who is not liable at all

Section 23(1) puts two categories outside registration entirely: a person engaged exclusively in supplying goods or services that are not liable to tax or are wholly exempt, and an agriculturist, to the extent of supply of produce out of cultivation of land. Section 23(2) additionally lets the Government exempt notified categories, which is the power under which the ₹40 lakh goods exemption was issued.

Voluntary registration is a real commitment

Section 25(3) allows anyone to register voluntarily, and then applies every provision of the Act to them "as are applicable to a registered person". That is the whole point and the whole cost. You get input tax credit and you can bill GST-registered buyers who insist on a GSTIN. You also inherit monthly or quarterly returns, including nil returns for periods with no activity, late fees for missing them, and section 29(2)(d), which lets the officer cancel a voluntary registration if business has not commenced within six months.

Register voluntarily when the input tax credit or the customer requirement is worth more than the compliance load. Do not register because it feels more official.

The thirty-day clock, and what it costs to miss it

Section 25(1) requires an application "within thirty days from the date on which he becomes liable to registration". A casual taxable person or non-resident taxable person must apply at least five days before commencing business.

Missing that window has two distinct consequences, and the second is the expensive one.

Rule 10(2) says that where the application is submitted within thirty days of becoming liable, the registration is effective from the date liability arose. Rule 10(3) says that where it is submitted after those thirty days, the registration is effective only from the date of grant.

Section 18(1)(a) then gives credit on inputs held in stock — and inputs contained in semi-finished or finished goods held in stock — on the day immediately preceding the date liability arose, but only to "a person who has applied for registration … within thirty days from the date on which he becomes liable to registration and has been granted such registration". Apply on day thirty-one and that opening-stock credit is gone. There is no condonation route in the sub-section.

Meanwhile the tax itself does not wait. Section 2(107) defines a taxable person as one who is "registered or liable to be registered" under section 22 or section 24. Liability to tax attaches from the date the threshold is crossed, not from the date a certificate is printed. And section 32(1) forbids an unregistered person from collecting any amount by way of tax — so during the gap you owe the tax but were not permitted to charge it.

Worked example — the cost of applying two months late

Assumptions, stated so you can change them. Ramesh runs a proprietorship in Pune. He supplies goods only, from Maharashtra only, so his threshold is ₹40 lakh. His aggregate turnover crosses ₹40 lakh on 12 May 2026. His section 25(1) deadline is therefore 11 June 2026. He actually applies on 20 July 2026 and registration is granted on 29 July 2026. Between 12 May and 28 July he invoiced ₹18,00,000 of goods taxable at 18%, without charging GST because he had no GSTIN. On 11 May he held stock on which his suppliers had charged ₹1,08,000 of GST. All figures are illustrative.

The headline number is not the ₹3,24,000. Ramesh would have owed that tax anyway, and had he registered on time he would have collected it from his customers. The pure loss created by being late is the ₹1,08,000 of opening-stock credit, plus the interest, plus a commercial problem that does not show up in any table: his customers received invoices with no GST on them and therefore no input tax credit, and fixing that means going back to every one of them.

One honest caveat. Whether the ₹18,00,000 already collected should be treated as the taxable value, or as inclusive of tax so that the tax is extracted from it, is a genuinely contested question in assessment practice. The example takes the simpler and harsher reading. If the cum-tax treatment applies the output tax falls to roughly ₹2,74,576, and the rest of the analysis is unchanged.

What you need before you open the portal

The exact set depends on your constitution. This is the core, grouped the way the application asks for it.

Two practical notes that save more time than anything else on that list.

Get the name spelling identical across every document. The portal validates the PAN online against the CBDT database, so the legal name has to match the PAN exactly — not the trade name, not the name on the signboard, not the version with the middle initial dropped.

Sort the address proof before you start. Place-of-business evidence is the single largest source of REG-03 queries. If the premises are rented, you need a registered agreement and it should name the applicant. If they are shared or belong to a relative, you need a consent letter plus the owner's ownership proof. If you have no premises in that State at all, a compliant virtual office for GST is a legitimate route, but it must be an address at which you can actually receive and acknowledge correspondence, because the officer may verify it.

The process, step by step

Step 1 — Part A of REG-01, and the TRN

Under Rule 8(1) you declare your Permanent Account Number and the State or Union territory in Part A of FORM GST REG-01. Rule 8(2)(a), in its current form, says the PAN is validated online against the CBDT database "and shall also be verified through separate one-time passwords sent to the mobile number and e-mail address linked to the Permanent Account Number".

This is a change worth pausing on, because the older description of this step — declare a mobile and an e-mail, get an OTP on each — is still repeated widely and is no longer what the rule says. The OTPs go to the contact details recorded against your PAN. If the mobile number linked to your PAN is one you no longer use, you cannot get past Part A at all, and the fix is at the income-tax end, not the GST end. Check this first.

On successful verification the portal generates a Temporary Reference Number (TRN) under Rule 8(3).

Step 2 — Part B, the substantive application

Using the TRN, Rule 8(4) has you submit Part B of FORM GST REG-01, signed or verified through electronic verification code, with the documents specified in the Form. This is the long part: constitution, promoter and partner details, authorised signatory, principal and additional places of business, the goods and services you deal in, bank details, and jurisdiction.

Step 3 — Aadhaar authentication, and what it actually does

Rule 8(4A) gives an applicant the option to authenticate the authorised signatory's Aadhaar while submitting Part B. It does two specific things, and it is worth being precise about both.

It fixes the date of submission. Under Rule 8(4A) the date of submission of the application is "the date of authentication of the Aadhaar number, or fifteen days from the submission of the application in Part B, whichever is earlier". Since every downstream deadline in Rule 9 runs from the date of submission, an authentication left pending for a fortnight delays the whole file by a fortnight.

It keeps you out of the slow track. Limb (a) of the proviso to Rule 9(1) routes anyone who fails to authenticate, or who does not opt for authentication, to a thirty-day timeline with mandatory physical verification of the premises.

What it does not do is guarantee seven days — see the next step.

Rule 8(4A) as substituted by Notification 94/2020-Central Tax goes further, requiring biometric-based Aadhaar authentication, a photograph and verification of the original uploaded documents at a notified Facilitation Centre, with the application "deemed to be complete only after completion of the process laid down under this sub-rule". That regime has been brought into force State by State, and the current list of States where a Facilitation Centre visit is required could not be confirmed from a government source on 19 August 2026 — so check it for your State rather than assuming, either way.

An acknowledgement issues in FORM GST REG-02 under Rule 8(5).

Step 4 — Verification by the proper officer

Rule 9(1) requires the officer to examine the application and, if it is in order, approve registration within seven working days of the date of submission.

The proviso replaces that with thirty days, after physical verification of the place of business under Rule 25, in three situations:

• the applicant fails to undergo Aadhaar authentication, or does not opt for it
• the applicant did authenticate but "is identified on the common portal, **based on data analysis and

risk parameters**, for carrying out physical verification of places of business"

• the proper officer, with the approval of an officer not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner, deems

physical verification of the premises fit

That middle limb was inserted by Notification 38/2023-Central Tax on 4 August 2023 and it is the reason no honest guide can promise seven days. A clean, fully authenticated application can still be routed to physical verification by the portal's own risk scoring, with no query and no fault on the applicant's side. The same notification also removed the words "in the presence of the said person" from that proviso, so the officer's visit no longer requires you to be there — which makes it more important, not less, that somebody at the address can confirm the business operates from it.

Step 5 — the REG-03 query, and your REG-04 reply

If the application is deficient or the officer wants clarification, Rule 9(2) allows a notice in FORM GST REG-03 within seven working days of submission (up to thirty days in the proviso cases). You then furnish the clarification, information or documents in FORM GST REG-04 within seven working days of receiving the notice.

Two things about REG-03 that decide outcomes.

Answer within the window. Rule 9(4) lets the officer reject the application in FORM GST REG-05 where no reply is furnished, or where the reply does not satisfy him, for reasons recorded in writing. There is no automatic extension.

REG-04 cannot fix Part A. The Explanation to Rule 9(2) says clarification "includes modification or correction of particulars declared in the application for registration, other than Permanent Account Number, State, mobile number and e-mail address declared in Part A". Get those four wrong and no reply will save the application; you start again.

Where the officer is satisfied with the reply, Rule 9(3) requires approval within seven working days of receiving it.

Step 6 — REG-06, and your GSTIN

On approval, Rule 10(1) makes the certificate of registration available in FORM GST REG-06 on the common portal, showing the principal place of business and any additional places, and assigns a fifteen-character GSTIN: two characters for the State code, ten for the PAN (or TAN), two for the entity code, and one checksum character.

There is also a route to registration without the officer acting at all. Rule 9(5) deems the application approved if the officer fails to act within seven working days of submission, within thirty days where the proviso applies, or within seven working days of receiving your clarification. Rule 10(5) then requires the certificate to be made available within three days after that period expires. Treat it as a backstop, not a strategy — it only engages after the full statutory period has already run.

What "seven working days" really means

Rule 9 does not define "working days", and the count starts from the date of submission, which under Rule 8(4A) may not be the day you clicked submit. Here is how the same application behaves on four different paths.

So the honest range is roughly one working week for a clean, authenticated, unflagged application, and up to about a month where physical verification is triggered or a query is raised. Any promise tighter than that is a promise about someone else's discretion. If you want the same range expressed as calendar dates against each cost component, that is laid out in what registration costs and how long it takes.

The first thirty days after your GSTIN arrives

Getting the certificate is the halfway point, not the finish.

Furnish bank account details under Rule 10A. As substituted with effect from 4 August 2023, Rule 10A requires bank account details on the common portal within thirty days of the grant of registration, or before furnishing the first GSTR-1 or using the invoice furnishing facility, whichever is earlier. This stopped being paperwork in the same amendment: Rule 21A(2A)(b) now makes a contravention of Rule 10A a ground for suspending the registration, with FORM GST REG-31 issued and thirty days to explain why it should not be cancelled. The suspension is deemed revoked on compliance, which is the good news, but a suspended GSTIN is a stopped business in the meantime.

Start invoicing correctly and start filing. Registration turns on a recurring obligation from the effective date, including nil returns for quiet periods. If you have not read the return cycle yet, the GST return filing guide covers what falls due and when, and our GST return filing service exists because the first three months are where new registrants most often slip.

Watch the section 16(4) outer limit on input tax credit. Credit on an invoice cannot be taken after the thirtieth day of November following the end of the financial year to which it relates, or the filing of the relevant annual return, whichever is earlier. New registrants who let the first few months' purchase records drift are the ones who discover this too late.

Keep the registration particulars current. Changing your principal place of business, adding a location, or changing an authorised signatory is a GST amendment filing, not something to note internally and deal with later. A registered address the department cannot reach is how a routine verification turns into a show-cause notice.

Why applications get rejected, and what to do about each

Rule 9(4) is the rejection power, and it requires reasons recorded in writing. In practice the reasons cluster.

If it is rejected anyway

A REG-05 rejection is not the end of the road, and there are two routes.

The straightforward one is to file a fresh application that cures the recorded defect. Read the reasons in the REG-05 carefully — because they must be recorded in writing, they tell you precisely what to fix, and a second application that repeats the same defect will fail the same way.

The formal one is to appeal to the Appellate Authority under section 107 against the rejection order. This matters where you think the rejection is wrong rather than curable, or where the effective date of registration is itself worth fighting for because of the section 18(1)(a) opening-stock credit. Section 107(1) gives you three months from the date the order is communicated, and section 107(4) allows a further one month where the Appellate Authority is satisfied you were prevented by sufficient cause. Section 107(6) requires the admitted amount in full plus 10% of the disputed tax, subject to a maximum of ₹20 crore — a cap reduced from ₹25 crore with effect from 1 November 2024. On a registration rejection there is usually no tax in dispute at all, so the pre-deposit is rarely the obstacle; the one-month outer limit on condonation usually is.

If what you are facing is not a rejected application but a cancelled registration, that is a different provision. Revocation under section 30 read with Rule 23 allows an application within ninety days of service of the cancellation order, extendable by the Additional or Joint Commissioner by up to a further 180 days for reasons recorded in writing. The 90-day figure has applied since 1 October 2023; the old thirty-day rule is still widely quoted and is wrong. We handle that under GST revocation, and any show-cause that arrives in the meantime is a GST notice reply with a hard deadline on it.

Situations that follow different rules

Casual taxable person. Section 24(ii) makes registration compulsory regardless of turnover, section 25(1) requires the application at least five days before commencing business, and section 27(2) requires an advance deposit of tax equal to the estimated liability at the time of application — Rule 8(6) says the acknowledgement in REG-02 issues only after that deposit. Section 27(1) makes the certificate valid for the period applied for or ninety days, whichever is earlier, extendable once by up to ninety more days. This is the one situation where "GST registration has no fee" would be misleading: no fee, but money up front.

Non-resident taxable person. Also compulsory under section 24(v), also five days ahead, also an advance deposit, and under section 25(7) registration can be granted on prescribed documents rather than a PAN.

Selling through a marketplace. Section 24(ix) catches sellers supplying through an e-commerce operator that collects TCS under section 52, and section 24(x) catches the operator itself. As enacted, turnover does not enter the analysis. As applied, notified exemptions have narrowed the seller-side limb, differently for goods and for services — so confirm the current exemption position rather than assuming either that you must register or that you are covered by relief.

Operating in more than one State. Section 25(1) requires a separate application per State or Union territory, and section 25(4) makes each registration a distinct person. The practical consequence people miss is that a stock transfer from your Karnataka registration to your Maharashtra registration is a supply between distinct persons and attracts tax, even though nothing left the business and no money moved.

Special Economic Zone. The second proviso to section 25(1) requires a unit in an SEZ, or an SEZ developer, to take a separate registration distinct from any place of business outside the zone in the same State.

Considering the composition scheme. Section 10(1) sets a base limit of ₹50 lakh with power to raise it, and Notification 14/2019-Central Tax notifies ₹1.5 crore, reduced to ₹75 lakh for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. The second proviso to section 10(1) lets a composition taxpayer still supply services up to 10% of turnover in the State in the preceding financial year or ₹5 lakh, whichever is higher. It is a lower rate and a simpler return, but no input tax credit and no tax passed on to buyers — the trade-off is set out under the GST composition scheme.

What this actually costs

The CGST Rules prescribe no fee for filing FORM GST REG-01, for replying to REG-03, or for the certificate in REG-06. That is a negative finding read off Rules 8, 9, 10 and 10A rather than an assumption, and it is worth stating narrowly: there is no statutory charge for the application. It is not the same as "registration is free", because a casual taxable person must deposit estimated tax before the acknowledgement issues.

Everything else is a private price, not a government one — a Digital Signature Certificate where the entity must sign with one, a virtual office or co-working address, a registered rent agreement and its stamp duty, a notarised consent letter, and professional fees. No government source fixes any of those, which is exactly why any page quoting a single all-in "GST registration fee" is quoting somebody's price list. The component breakdown is in GST registration fees and timeline.

Common mistakes

• Treating turnover as State-wise. Section 2(6) is explicit that it is per PAN, all-India.
• Excluding exports and exempt supplies from the turnover count. Both are in the definition.
• Assuming ₹40 lakh applies to a services business. It applies only to exclusive supply of goods.
• Assuming ₹40 lakh applies everywhere. Ten States and UTs are excluded by Notification 10/2019.
• Applying on day forty and treating it as "a bit late". Day thirty-one costs the section 18(1)(a) credit.
• Charging GST before the GSTIN arrives. Section 32(1) prohibits it outright.
• Declaring a mobile number that is not linked to the PAN, and then being unable to complete Part A.
• Skipping Aadhaar authentication to save an afternoon, and buying a thirty-day track with a site visit.
• Letting a REG-03 sit unopened. Seven working days is the whole window.
• Treating the bank account under Rule 10A as optional. It is now a suspension trigger.
• Registering voluntarily "for credibility" and then not filing nil returns.

Penalties for getting it wrong

Failing to register when liable is not a filing lapse. Section 122(1)(xi) of the CGST Act makes it an offence to be "liable to be registered under this Act but fail to obtain registration", and the closing words of section 122(1) set the penalty at ₹10,000 or an amount equivalent to the tax evaded, whichever is higher. Read the "whichever is higher" carefully: on a real trading gap the tax figure is the one that bites, not the ₹10,000. And that is the CGST leg — the mirror provision in the State Act runs alongside it.

On top of that sit the ordinary consequences already described: tax payable from the date of liability under section 2(107) whether or not you registered, interest under section 50(1) notified at 18% per annum on tax paid late, and the forfeiture of opening-stock credit under section 18(1)(a).

Once registered, the exposure changes shape. Late returns attract a per-day late fee under section 47 — capped, and the caps depend on your turnover slab and whether the return is nil, which is what the GST late fee calculator is for. Interest under section 50 is separate from that late fee and is not capped. Persistent non-filing runs into section 29(2)(c), which lets the officer cancel a registration for failure to furnish returns for a prescribed continuous period.

Two faster routes added in November 2025: Rule 9A and Rule 14A

The seven-working-day and thirty-day tracks described above are no longer the only ones. The Central Goods and Services Tax (Fourth Amendment) Rules, 2025, notified by Notification 18/2025-Central Tax dated 31 October 2025 and in force from 1 November 2025, inserted two new rules. Most published guidance has not caught up, and the guidance that has usually blurs them together. They are quite different.

Rule 9A — automatic electronic grant in three working days

Rule 9A, quoted in full: "Notwithstanding anything contained in rule 9, any person who has applied for registration under rule 8 or rule 12 or rule 17 shall, upon identification on the common portal based on data analysis and risk parameters, be granted registration electronically by the common portal, within three working days from the date of submission of application."

Note what this is and is not. It is not something you apply for. It is the mirror image of limb (aa) of the proviso to Rule 9(1): the same risk engine that can route a suspicious application to a thirty-day track with a site visit can now route a clean, low-risk one straight to an automatic electronic grant in three working days, with no officer involved. You cannot elect into it and you cannot appeal out of it.

Rule 14A — an election, with a ceiling and a one-way door

Rule 14A is a genuine option, and the conditions matter more than the headline.

Sub-rule (1) lets a person applying under Rule 8 elect this route where "his total output tax liability on supply of goods or services or both made to registered persons on account of central tax and State tax or Union territory tax and integrated tax and compensation cess does not exceed two lakh and fifty thousand rupees per month". Read that test carefully: it is a ceiling on monthly output tax liability on B2B supplies, not on turnover and not on total output tax.

Sub-rule (2) makes Aadhaar authentication mandatory — a person who has not opted for it is not eligible at all. Sub-rule (3) allows only one Rule 14A registration per State or Union territory against the same PAN, notwithstanding Rule 11. Sub-rule (4) then grants registration electronically within three working days of submission, on successful Aadhaar authentication.

The part to think about before opting in is how you get out. Withdrawal under sub-rule (5) is an application in FORM GST REG-32, and it is not available unless you have furnished returns for a minimum of three months where the application is filed before 1 April 2026, or a minimum of one tax period on or after that date — plus all returns due from the effective date of registration. A further proviso blocks it where proceedings under section 29 have already been initiated. Any change in your REG-01 particulars must be amended under Rule 19 before you can apply. The officer verifies the withdrawal under Rule 9 and issues FORM GST REG-33 allowing it, or REG-05 rejecting it.

And the effect is forward-only. Sub-rule (11) lets you report output tax liability above the ceiling only "from the first day of succeeding month in which the said order has been issued", and sub-rule (12) expressly bars amending earlier periods to exceed the ceiling. Sub-rule (13) adds that if cancellation proceedings start after your withdrawal application and are pending, the withdrawal is rejected and the Rule 9(5) deemed-approval safety net does not apply.

Practical reading. Rule 14A buys a fast, officer-free registration in exchange for a hard monthly ceiling on B2B output tax and a slow, conditional exit. It suits a small B2B supplier who is confident of staying under ₹2.5 lakh of monthly output tax for a while. It suits a business expecting to scale past that within a quarter much less well — the exit is an application, not a switch, and it takes effect from the month after it is granted.

Official references

This guide rests on CGST Act 2017 sections 2(6), 2(107), 16(4), 18(1)(a), 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 32 and 122; CGST Rules 2017 rules 8, 9, 9A, 10, 10A, 14A, 21A, 23, 25 and 26; Article 279A(4)(g) of the Constitution; and these notifications:

• 10/2017-Integrated Tax (13.10.2017), as amended by 03/2019-Integrated Tax — exemption for small inter-State suppliers of services
• 10/2019-Central Tax (07.03.2019) — the ₹40 lakh exemption for exclusive supply of goods
• 14/2019-Central Tax (07.03.2019) — composition limits
• 94/2020-Central Tax (22.12.2020) — the Rule 9 timelines and deemed approval
• 34/2023-Central Tax (31.07.2023) — exemption for sub-threshold goods sellers on e-commerce operators
• 38/2023-Central Tax (04.08.2023) — Rules 10A, 21A, 23 and 25
• 18/2025-Central Tax (31.10.2025) — CGST (Fourth Amendment) Rules 2025, inserting Rules 9A and 14A

Links to the ones with a public PDF are in the sources block at the end of this page.

Where to go next

If you want this handled rather than read about, our GST registration service runs the applicability check first, prepares the document set against the constitution of your entity, files REG-01, and tracks the ARN and any REG-03 query to conclusion. The applicability check is the part worth paying for — it is cheaper to be told you do not need to register than to discover a permanent filing obligation you took on by accident.

Sources and currency

Applies to: India, CGST Act 2017 and CGST Rules 2017 as in force on 19 August 2026

Sections and rules below were read from CBIC's tax repository, and notifications from the GST Council archive and CBIC's own notification repository, on 19 August 2026. Two limits on that check are worth knowing. What the GST portal offers in practice — which signing options appear for a given entity type, and which States currently require a Facilitation Centre visit for biometric Aadhaar authentication — could not be verified from a government source, so those are flagged in the text as things to check rather than stated as fact. And notification coverage runs to about the end of June 2026. Thresholds and procedures change by notification; confirm anything time-critical before you rely on it.

• CGST Act 2017, section 22 — persons liable for registration
• CGST Act 2017, section 24 — compulsory registration in certain cases
• CGST Act 2017, section 25 — procedure for registration
• CGST Act 2017, section 18 — availability of credit in special circumstances
• CGST Rules 2017, Rule 8 — application for registration
• CGST Rules 2017, Rule 9 — verification of the application and approval
• CGST Rules 2017, Rule 10 — issue of registration certificate
• CGST Rules 2017, Rule 10A — furnishing of bank account details
• Notification 10/2019-Central Tax, 7 March 2019 — the ₹40 lakh exemption for exclusive supply of goods
• Notification 94/2020-Central Tax, 22 December 2020 — Rule 9 timelines and deemed approval
• Notification 38/2023-Central Tax, 4 August 2023 — Rules 10A, 21A, 23 and 25
• Notification 34/2023-Central Tax — exemption for sub-threshold suppliers of goods through an e-commerce operator
• CBIC notification repository (search by number — Notifications 10/2017-Integrated Tax and 18/2025-Central Tax are held here)
• Constitution (101st Amendment) Act 2016 — Article 279A(4)(g)