Currently a person may have different registrations under different indirect tax statutes like Excise Duty, Service Tax and State VAT/Sales Tax. Provisions relating to registration, returns, credits, payment, refund, invoicing, assessments etc. vary under all these different statutes. Further in case of Sales Tax, these provisions even vary from one state to another. Further Threshold limits also vary under these legislatures. While a manufacture gets a ceiling of 1.5 Crore, service Provider gets just Rs. 10 Lakhs as threshold ceiling. On the other hand threshold for VAT registration also vary from state to state.
Goods and Service Tax (GST) as contemplated as One Nation- One Tax will integrate all these separate statutes into uniform statutes. It will create a single unified market across the country for supply of goods or services.
Persons liable for registration:
(i) Person making any inter-State taxable supply;
(ii) persons who are required to pay tax under reverse charge;
(iii) every electronic commerce operator;
(iv) Input Service Distributor;
(v) persons who are required to deduct tax under section 51;
(vi) persons who supply goods or services or both, through such electronic commerce operator who is required to collect tax at source under section 52 except in a case where such electronic commerce operator himself is liable to pay tax due to the application of Section 9(5) of CGST Act, 2017.
(vii) non-resident taxable persons or casual taxable persons making taxable supply.
Requirement of Separate Registration for each State:
One Registration for one PAN in one State:
Migration into GST of a person having only VAT Registration:
Migration into GST of a person having registration under State VAT, Central Excise and Service Tax:
The same has also been clarified by CBEC FAQ on Migration into GST as follows:
“The facility to add existing registrations in the Enrolment Application is available on the GST Common Portal. You can add the remaining registrations at the time of enrolment under GST. However, if you have submitted the Enrolment Application with DSC or E-sign without adding the remaining registrations, and have already received the Application Reference Number (ARN), you will not be able to add the remaining registrations now. You will be able to add or remove the other registrations in the Enrolment Application only after the appointed date (i.e., date of implementation of GST) through the process of amendment (non-core).”
Migration into GST of a person having only Service Tax Registration for his single premise:
Migration into GST of person having centralized registration in Service Tax:
“On ACES portal, the Centralized Registration (CR) captures the address details (including State) of the assessee’s registered business premises in a State, as well as, branches or many registered addresses in different States across the country from where services are provided.
As a policy, these assessees are issued only one Provisional ID and password for each State (across the CR premises and all branches). For example, an assessee having CR number ABCDE1234FSD002 is having business premises in Delhi, and branches in Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. In this case, the assessee is issued five Provisional IDs and passwords, one for each State.
The CR assessee may also have a factory (under Central Excise registration) or a Service Tax (ST) single premises registration (independent of its Centralized Registration) in the State of Tamil Nadu (registration number ABCDE1234FXM001 or ABCDE1234FSD001). Then a Provisional ID and password for the State of Tamil Nadu will be issued against either the CE or ST registration number mentioned earlier. In this case, the CR assessee will get four Provisional IDs and passwords for the remaining States i.e. Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.”
Cancellation of Registration of a person who is not liable to registration under GST:
Gist of some other important FAQ on Migration issued by CBEC:
Qu.: I am an existing taxpayer and wish to enroll in GST. My previous registration number was ST001 and after cancellation (or surrender), my current registration number is ST002. However, a Provisional ID and password has been issued against my previous registration number ST001. I logged into the ACES portal (using my existing ACES username and password), and received the Provisional ID and password for my previous registration number ST001, but not for the current registration number ST002.
Ans.: As a policy, if the assessee has multiple registrations within a State on the same PAN, only one Provisional ID and password will be issued, as per the following order: Only one provisional ID and password will be issued to a given PAN within a State, irrespective of the number of registrations on that PAN within that State.
Apparently, you have more than one registration i.e., ST001 and ST002, of which registration number ST001 is either “Inactive” or “Surrendered”. However, as per CBEC guidelines, a Provisional ID and password has already been allotted against the registration number ST001. For further assistance, please contact CBEC Mitra Helpdesk at cbecmitra.helpdesk@gst.gov.in or call at the toll-free number 1800-1200-232, and provide your registration details (both earlier and current registration numbers)
Qu.: I am an existing PAN-based Service Tax (ST), Central Excise (CE) and State VAT assessee. I did not receive the Provisional ID and password for migrating to GST.
Ans.: You may have multiple registrations under the State VAT department. For further investigation, please contact CBEC Mitra Helpdesk at cbecmitra.helpdesk@gst.gov.in or call at the toll-free number 1800-1200-232. When requesting help, please provide your registration details to CBEC Mitra Helpdesk. CBEC Mitra Helpdesk will notify you as soon as the issue is resolved.
Qu.: I am an existing PAN-based Service Tax (ST) and Central Excise (CE) assessee. After
logging into the ACES portal, under SERVICE TAX, the Provisional ID is showing “Awaited”.
Ans.: If you are already registered as a Central Excise (CE) or Service Tax (ST) assessee on the ACES portal, after 31.01.2017, then your Provisional ID and password for migrating to GST has not yet been generated. You are advised to wait for the same. Any updates on issuance of Provisional IDs and passwords, to such assessees, will be published on both the CBEC and ACES websites. So, please checking the status of your registration at www.cbec.gov.in and www.aces.gov.in.
(Disclaimer: This write up is based on the understanding and interpretation of author and the same is not intended to be a professional advice.)
[The author is a Chartered Accountant and can also be reached at goyalcanitin@gmail.com]
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