Industry's last chance to register for GST

Businesses need to get on board in 15 days, ahead of indirect tax roll-out

With only a month left for the roll-out of the goods and services (GST) tax businesses would have to register on its network in the next fortnight.

“This is probably the last window before the GST goes online on 1st July. To raise an invoice under the new indirect tax regime one would have to be registered on the GST Network (GSTN),” said L Badri Narayanan, partner, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan.

Businesses would also be able to amend any mistake made during registration earlier in this window.

Experts said transition of credit and inputs in stock were dependent on being registered with the GSTN. Getting registered early would make the switch easy.

One would, however, be legally liable to register only if operating above a certain limit. In any case, it would be beneficial to register, said tax experts.

It would give businesses the opportunity to avail of tax credit, charge output tax and pass it on to customers, and avoid a cascading impact of taxes under the current tax regime.

Businesses would need to inform customers and suppliers of their registration if the whole value chain had to avail benefits of input tax credit.

“Both suppliers and customers would want registration details. If customers don’t have the registration number of the supplier, they would have to pay taxes on a reverse-charge basis and may not get reimbursement on the tax indicated on the invoice. If the supplier does not have the registration number of the customer, it would be treated as a sale to an unregistered person and the credit will be lost,” said Narayanan.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs has made it mandatory for exporters and importers to declare valid GST registration numbers in customs documents, such as bill of entry and shipping bills, from 1st July. This will be required to avail Integrated GST credit on imports or GST refund on exports.