Do E-commerce Sellers Need GST Registration?

GST registration is compulsory for most marketplace sellers under section 24(ix) of the CGST Act, but not for all of them. Section 24(ix) requires registration from the first supply by a person who supplies goods or services through an electronic commerce operator that is required to collect tax at source under section 52. Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax has exempted small intra-State suppliers of goods since 1 October 2023. Notification No. 65/2017-Central Tax exempts suppliers of services through a marketplace below ₹20 lakh of aggregate turnover. Both notifications are issued under section 23(2), which overrides section 24. Whether you register depends on what you sell, where you sell it, and how much.

Section 140 of the Finance Act, 2023 substituted section 23(2), which now opens "Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in sub-section (1) of section 22 or section 24", deemed substituted with effect from 1 July 2017 and brought into force on 1 October 2023 by Notification No. 28/2023-Central Tax. That is what allows a notification to exempt a person whom section 24 would otherwise compel to register.

The rule that registration is compulsory from day one for every e-commerce seller regardless of turnover was true until 30 September 2023 for goods, and has never been true for services.

Goods and services follow two different exemption instruments. A marketplace seller of goods is exempt from GST registration below ₹20 lakh aggregate turnover, on an enrolment number, supplying within one State only, under Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax, in force since 1 October 2023. A marketplace supplier of services is exempt below ₹20 lakh of all-India aggregate turnover under Notification No. 65/2017-Central Tax, with no enrolment number and no single-State condition. A supply notified under section 9(5), such as restaurant service, passenger transport, hotel accommodation or house-keeping, falls outside section 24(ix) altogether, because the platform pays the tax on it as though it were the supplier.

Each was drafted for one of the two, six years apart: 65/2017 for services in November 2017, 34/2023 for goods in July 2023. Neither mentions the other, which is why a seller who supplies both has no answer in either.

The services exemption continues whatever the number of States supplied and needs no enrolment number; the goods exemption ends on the first inter-State sale and requires an enrolment number before the first supply.

Selling through your own website does not attract section 24(ix) at all. Section 24(ix) applies only to a person who supplies goods or services through an electronic commerce operator that is required to collect tax at source under section 52. A single-vendor website carries no such operator, because section 52 applies to an operator through whom other suppliers make supplies, and no tax at source is collected on sales you make on your own account. A seller on their own website therefore registers only when aggregate turnover crosses the section 22(1) threshold, or when another clause of section 24 applies, most commonly inter-State supply of goods under section 24(i).

Listing on one marketplace changes the answer for that seller's marketplace supplies, not for the website supplies, and the registration that follows is a single registration covering both. A seller who runs a website and also lists on Meesho is inside section 24(ix) on the Meesho supplies from the first sale, unless Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax applies to them.

If I sell only on my own website (Shopify, WooCommerce), do the normal limits apply?

Yes. Shopify and WooCommerce are storefront software you run your own shop on, not marketplaces collecting tax at source on your sales. The section 22(1) thresholds apply until you list on a marketplace whose operator collects tax at source under section 52.

A seller of goods can supply through a marketplace without GST registration where Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax applies. The notification was issued under section 23(2) of the CGST Act on 31 July 2023 and came into force on 1 October 2023. It exempts a person supplying goods through an electronic commerce operator required to collect tax at source under section 52, whose aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year and in the current financial year does not exceed the section 22(1) registration threshold for that State. The exemption is conditional, and all eight conditions must hold at once. Failing any one of them puts the seller back inside section 24(ix) from the first supply.

The ceiling is ₹20 lakh because Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax names no rupee amount and keys instead to "the amount of aggregate turnover above which a supplier is liable to be registered in the State or Union territory in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 22", and section 22(1) says twenty lakh rupees, ₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Section 22(1) cannot yield ₹40 lakh: the only route inside it is the third proviso, which has never been exercised. The ₹40 lakh figure in Indian practice comes from a different instrument doing a different thing, Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax, itself a section 23(2) instrument, not incorporated by reference into 34/2023, and clause (a) of that instrument excludes "persons required to take compulsory registration under section 24".

The 47th GST Council's press release of 29 June 2022 formulated the operator waiver as turnover not exceeding that specified under sub-section (1) of section 22 "and notifications issued thereunder". The enacted notification dropped those words. The inference from that narrowing is that the wider formulation was not adopted.

• Condition (i), intra-State supply only. Such persons shall not make any inter-State supply of goods.
• Condition (ii), one State only. Such persons shall not make supply of goods through an electronic commerce operator in more than one State or Union territory.
• Condition (iii), PAN required. Such persons shall be required to have a Permanent Account Number issued under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
• Condition (iv), declaration before any supply. Such persons shall, before making any supply of goods through an electronic commerce operator, declare on the common portal their Permanent Account Number, the address of their place of business, and the State or Union territory in which they seek to supply, which is validated on the common portal.
• Condition (v), enrolment number granted. Such persons have been granted an enrolment number on the common portal on successful validation of the Permanent Account Number.
• Condition (vi), one enrolment number per State. Such persons shall not be granted more than one enrolment number in a State or Union territory.
• Condition (vii), no supply before enrolment. No supply of goods shall be made through an electronic commerce operator unless the enrolment number has been granted.
• Condition (viii), registration ends the enrolment. Where such persons are subsequently granted registration under section 25, the enrolment number ceases to be valid from the effective date of registration.

Under Notification No. 37/2023-Central Tax dated 4 August 2023, the operator must allow the supply only if an enrolment number has been allotted, must not allow any inter-State supply by such a person, must not collect tax at source under section 52(1) on those supplies, and must report them in Form GSTR-8. Where several operators are involved in one supply, the operator is the one who finally releases the payment to the seller.

Yes. Section 23(2) of the CGST Act now overrides section 24 expressly. Section 140 of the Finance Act, 2023 substituted section 23(2) with retrospective effect from 1 July 2017, and the substituted text opens: "Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in sub-section (1) of section 22 or section 24, the Government may…". Two earlier decisions held that section 24 is not subject to section 23, but both construed the pre-amendment text, which carried no non-obstante clause. Parliament has since deemed that clause to have been in force from the first day of GST. No decision anywhere has yet construed the substituted text.

In re Joint Plant Committee, West Bengal Authority for Advance Ruling, Order No. 01/WBAAR/2017-18, dated 21 March 2018. Para 11, verbatim: "Section 24 is not subject to the provisions of Section 23 of the GST Act." Weight: it binds only the applicant and the concerned officer in West Bengal under section 103(1). It is persuasive only, and weakly so, an Authority for Advance Ruling sitting outside the judicial hierarchy.

Uber India Systems Private Limited v. Union of India, Delhi High Court, Division Bench, 12 April 2023, W.P.(C) 14048/2021, neutral citation 2023:DHC:2489, heard with Ibibo and Pragatisheel. Para 16.3, verbatim: "the individual supplier who is otherwise exempt from registration under Section 23(2) is required to obtain the compulsory registration under Section 24(ix) to enable the ECO to comply with the said obligation." Weight: binding in Delhi, persuasive elsewhere, and on this question it is obiter, the ratio being the Article 14 validity of withdrawing the section 9(5) operator exemption for passenger transport.

Each construes the pre-amendment section 23(2). Uber India reproduces that text verbatim in the judgment and it carries no non-obstante clause. Section 140 of the Finance Act, 2023 substituted section 23(2) with effect from 1 July 2017, and the substituted opening expressly overrides "sub-section (1) of section 22 or section 24". Parliament has therefore deemed section 23(2) to have carried, from the very first day of GST, an express override of section 24. The premise of Joint Plant Committee has been legislatively removed ab initio. Uber India was delivered twelve days after the Finance Act, 2023 received assent, was not asked to consider the substituted provision, and did not.

The ₹20 lakh figure does not depend on any of this. It rests on Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax keying its ceiling to "the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 22", and on section 22(1) saying twenty lakh rupees. Even a reader who thinks Joint Plant Committee and Uber India survive the amendment reaches the same ceiling, because the ceiling is fixed by the notification's own cross-reference and not by the section 23-versus-section 24 question.

Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax is itself untested. A phrase search returns no decision on it; it has been in force since 1 October 2023 and, as at 24 August 2026, no authority exists on it in either direction.

A supplier of services through a marketplace is exempt from registration up to ₹20 lakh of aggregate turnover. Notification No. 65/2017-Central Tax dated 15 November 2017 exempts persons making supplies of services, other than supplies specified under section 9(5), through an electronic commerce operator required to collect tax at source under section 52. The limit is aggregate turnover computed on an all-India basis, and the proviso reduces it to ₹10 lakh for the special category States. Notification No. 06/2019-Central Tax substituted that proviso with effect from 1 February 2019 so that it tracks the first proviso to section 22(1), which today means Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. There is no enrolment number and no single-State condition for services.

Because a goods supplier loses the exemption on the first inter-State sale and must hold an enrolment number before it, the GST Council took up a multi-State scheme for goods sellers at its 56th meeting.

Section 24(i) independently compels registration for an inter-State supply, so a service supplier making supplies across State lines should take the inter-State question to the threshold page rather than read this exemption as settling it. Freelancers and individuals selling through platforms will find the rest of the position under GST for freelancers.

No instrument addresses a seller who supplies both goods and services through the same marketplace. Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax covers goods only. Notification No. 65/2017-Central Tax covers services only. Notification No. 37/2023-Central Tax covers goods only. No circular, no FAQ and no GST Council decision fills the gap. What follows from the bare Act is that "aggregate turnover" in section 2(6) is computed PAN-wide and is not split between goods and services, so a mixed seller cannot run two separate ₹20 lakh limits. The safe course for a mixed seller is to register.

That negative was verified across CBIC's whole notification database of 10,713 records running from 1935 to 21 August 2026, the full text of 587 of 600 CGST, IGST and UTGST notification PDFs, all 275 GST circulars to Circular No. 256/02/2026-GST, and the 32nd, 47th, 48th and 50th Council press releases, every reference in which is to goods only. Each of the three instruments was drafted for goods alone or for services alone.

What follows from the bare Act. This is reasoning, not authority; no instrument and no decision says it. Section 2(6) defines "aggregate turnover" PAN-wide across all India and does not split it by goods and services. A seller with ₹12 lakh of goods and ₹12 lakh of services has ₹24 lakh of aggregate turnover and therefore fails both notifications at once, over the section 22(1) ceiling that 34/2023 keys to, and over the ₹20 lakh in 65/2017. Below the threshold both exemptions can be claimed at the same time, but 34/2023's eight conditions still bite on the goods leg, and nothing tells the operator how to run Form GSTR-8 and the section 52 tax-at-source obligation for a person who is enrolled-but-unregistered on goods and exempt on services.

For a mixed seller, register. The unresolved interaction is a problem for the operator's compliance systems as much as for the seller's, and a marketplace that cannot classify you will usually resolve the doubt against you at onboarding. The cost of the conservative position is a registration and its filings. The cost of the aggressive position is tax on unregistered supplies, interest under section 50, and a penalty under section 122(1)(xi) of ₹10,000 or an amount equivalent to the tax evaded, whichever is higher.

A seller of only GST-exempt goods can sell on a marketplace without a GSTIN. Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax is the route: supply in one State only, stay within the section 22(1) registration threshold, hold a PAN, and obtain an enrolment number before the first sale. Section 23(1)(a) of the CGST Act separately puts a person engaged exclusively in supplying wholly exempt or non-taxable goods outside registration. Section 23(1) was not given words overriding section 24, the Finance Act, 2023 having inserted those words into section 23(2) alone. Use the enrolment number route first, because it does not depend on how that gap is read. Exempt supplies still count towards aggregate turnover under section 2(6).

Section 140 of the Finance Act, 2023 substituted sub-section (2) of section 23 and gave it the words "Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in sub-section (1) of section 22 or section 24". Sub-section (1), which carries the exclusively-exempt supplier and the agriculturist, was not touched. A notification under section 23(2) therefore overrides section 24 on the face of the statute, and section 23(1) standing alone does not say so. Section 23(1)(a) remains available.

Several platforms require a GSTIN from every seller as a matter of contract, and that contract is not the law, so a seller who is legally exempt may still be unable to list without one.

An enrolment number is obtained on the GST portal, not through a registration application. GSTN opened the facility by advisory dated 12 October 2023 for unregistered persons supplying goods through electronic commerce operators in one State or Union territory. The applicant declares a Permanent Account Number, the address of the place of business and the State or Union territory of supply, and the portal validates the PAN. The enrolment number is generated on successful validation of the PAN. No supply may be made through any marketplace until it has been granted.

Services > User Services > Generate User Id for Unregistered Applicant on the pre-login GST portal. The portal then shows a warning window; confirming it opens a form on which the applicant chooses the option for supplying to electronic commerce operators, and completes the declaration.

An enrolment number is not a GSTIN. It does not permit tax to be charged, it carries no input tax credit, and it does not survive a later registration under section 25. The enrolment application validates PAN only. It does not ask for the constitution-of-business, address-proof and bank-account papers that a registration application requires, and the full document set is listed separately.

A marketplace seller registers for GST in six steps on the GST portal, in Form GST REG-01. The application runs in two parts: Part A generates a Temporary Reference Number (TRN) against your PAN, mobile number and email, and Part B carries the business, place-of-business and bank details. Documents are uploaded inside Part B, and the application is submitted after Aadhaar authentication. A 15-digit GSTIN and the registration certificate in Form GST REG-06 follow the Application Reference Number (ARN). A separate registration is needed in every State or Union territory from which you supply. No government fee is payable for GST registration.

Step 1: Go to the official GST Portal and select Services > Registration > New Registration

The GST Home page is at https://www.gst.gov.in/. Select Services > Registration > New Registration. Choose Taxpayer in the "I am a" list, then the State or Union territory from which you will supply.

Step 2: Complete Part A with PAN, mobile number and email to generate a Temporary Reference Number (TRN)

Part A takes the legal name of the business exactly as it appears on the PAN, the PAN itself, an email address and a mobile number. Two separate one-time passwords verify them. The portal then issues a Temporary Reference Number (TRN).

Step 3: Log in with the TRN and fill Part B of Form GST REG-01 with business and bank details

Part B carries the trade name, the constitution of business, the promoter or partner details, the authorised signatory, the principal place of business, the HSN or SAC codes for what you sell, and the bank account.

Step 4: Upload PAN, Aadhaar, photograph, a cancelled cheque and business address proof in Part B

A cancelled cheque, bank statement or passbook proves the account. A recent electricity bill, property tax receipt or municipal khata copy proves the address; rented premises need a rent agreement and the owner's no-objection certificate.

Step 5: Complete Aadhaar authentication, then submit by e-sign, EVC or Digital Signature Certificate (DSC)

Digitally signing with a DSC is mandatory for LLPs and companies. Every other applicant may submit by Aadhaar-based e-sign or by an Electronic Verification Code sent to the registered mobile number.

Step 6: Track the Application Reference Number (ARN) until the 15-digit GSTIN and Form GST REG-06 are issued

The Application Reference Number (ARN) reaches the registered mobile number and email on submission. Approval produces the 15-digit GSTIN and the registration certificate in Form GST REG-06, downloadable from the portal.

A seller inside Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax does not take this route at all, the enrolment path above being theirs. The general procedure for every applicant is set out in the ten steps.

The same two tests apply on every platform, and section 24(ix) sets both: whether the operator is required to collect tax at source under section 52, and whether your supply is one specified under section 9(5). What you supply through the platform therefore decides the answer. Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho collect tax at source on the goods sold through them, so their sellers are inside section 24(ix) unless Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax applies. Zomato, Swiggy and Uber carry supplies notified under section 9(5), on which the platform itself pays the tax as though it were the supplier. YouTube pays advertising revenue directly and collects no tax at source at all.

Amazon sellers must register unless they hold an enrolment number under Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax

Amazon is required to collect tax at source under section 52, so its sellers of goods fall inside section 24(ix). The single-State enrolment route is the only lawful way to sell without a GSTIN.

Flipkart sellers face the same statutory test, and Flipkart's own onboarding rules are separate from it

The law and the marketplace contract are two different requirements. A seller exempt under Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax may still be asked for a GSTIN as a condition of listing.

Meesho sellers listing without GST are using the enrolment number route, not an exemption Meesho grants

The exemption comes from Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax and requires intra-State supply only, turnover within the section 22(1) threshold, a PAN, and an enrolment number granted before the first sale.

Zomato and Swiggy restaurant partners supply a section 9(5) service, so section 24(ix) does not reach it

Restaurant service supplied through an electronic commerce operator was notified under section 9(5) with effect from 1 January 2022, other than restaurants located at specified premises. The platform pays the tax, and the same answer covers a cloud kitchen supplying through either app.

Uber and Ola drivers supply a section 9(5) service, and the platform pays the tax on it

Transportation of passengers by radio-taxi, motorcab, maxicab, motor cycle, omnibus or any other motor vehicle is notified under section 9(5). Registration is still required once aggregate turnover crosses the section 22(1) threshold.

YouTube and AdSense income is outside section 24(ix) because no operator collects tax at source on it

Advertising revenue paid by a foreign platform is a supply of services, usually an export of services, and it counts towards aggregate turnover under section 2(6).

A seller's registration and a marketplace's tax-collection registration are two different registrations held by two different persons. A seller registers under section 24(ix) in the ordinary way, in Form GST REG-01, and gets a GSTIN. An electronic commerce operator registers separately under section 24(x), which compels registration by "every electronic commerce operator who is required to collect tax at source under section 52", in Form GST REG-07, in every State or Union territory where it collects that tax. The operator collects tax at source on the seller's supplies made through it and reports them in Form GSTR-8. Section 2(45) defines an electronic commerce operator as any person who owns, operates or manages a digital or electronic facility or platform for electronic commerce.

Tax at source is collected at 0.25 per cent central tax plus 0.25 per cent State or Union territory tax, 0.5 per cent in total, on intra-State supplies, under Notification No. 52/2018-Central Tax as substituted by Notification No. 15/2024-Central Tax dated 10 July 2024, and at 0.5 per cent integrated tax on inter-State supplies under Notification No. 01/2024-Integrated Tax, also dated 10 July 2024. The 1 per cent figure was halved on 10 July 2024.

The tax collected appears in the seller's electronic cash ledger, so a registered seller recovers it, while a seller exempt under Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax has no tax collected at all, because Notification No. 37/2023-Central Tax forbids the operator to collect it. An operator that also sells on its own account needs an ordinary registration as well as its Form GST REG-07 registration, and the registration types are set out separately.

A composition taxpayer may supply goods through an electronic commerce operator, and has been able to do so since 1 October 2023. Section 137 of the Finance Act, 2023 omitted the words "goods or" from section 10(2)(d) and section 10(2A)(c) of the CGST Act, leaving only services outside the composition scheme. Notification No. 36/2023-Central Tax dated 4 August 2023 sets the operator's procedure for such supplies: no inter-State supply through the platform, tax at source collected under section 52(1), and the supplies reported in Form GSTR-8. A composition taxpayer supplying services through a marketplace is still outside the scheme. Composition registration is a registration, so the section 24(ix) question does not arise.

For a seller exempt under Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax the operator must not collect tax at source; for a composition seller under Notification No. 36/2023-Central Tax it must. The composition scheme itself is set out on the registration guide.

No simplified GST registration scheme for small suppliers selling through e-commerce operators has been notified. The GST Council approved the concept in principle only at its 56th meeting on 3 September 2025, for small suppliers making supplies through electronic commerce operators across multiple States who face difficulty maintaining a principal place of business in each State. The Council's own press release records that "the detailed modalities for operationalizing the said scheme will be placed before GST Council". No implementing notification exists in the Central Tax listing as at 24 August 2026. A multi-State marketplace seller cannot rely on it and must still register in every State from which supplies are made.

The Ministry of Finance's "Nine Years of GST" backgrounder of 30 June 2026 says that "Small taxpayers making intra-state supply of goods through e-commerce operators have been exempted from mandatory GST registration from October 2023". That is the Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax exemption described above, a single-State exemption that already exists. It is not the multi-State scheme the Council approved in principle in September 2025. A page that treats the June 2026 press release as evidence that the new scheme is live is reading a nine-year retrospective as an announcement.

A marketplace that lets an unregistered person supply through it is itself penalised. Section 122(1B) of the CGST Act, inserted by section 155 of the Finance Act, 2023 with effect from 1 October 2023, penalises an electronic commerce operator that allows a supply through it by an unregistered person other than a person exempted from registration by notification. The same provision penalises an operator that allows an inter-State supply by a person not eligible to make one, and one that misreports an exempted person's supplies in the section 52(4) statement. The penalty is ₹10,000, or the tax that would have been payable on the supply, whichever is higher. That is why platforms enforce the GSTIN or enrolment number at onboarding rather than leaving it to the seller.

A seller who breaches a condition of Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax, by accepting a single inter-State order for instance, is inside section 24(ix) from that supply and must register, and the operator is exposed under section 122(1B) for having allowed it. The seller's own penalties are set out on the registration guide.