What Are GST Registration Fees in India?

The government charges Rs 0 for GST registration, for all business types. No fee is prescribed under section 25 read with Rule 8. FORM GST REG-01 carries no fee field and no payment step. Sections 22 to 30 and Rules 8 to 26 govern registration, and none levies a charge. No Central Tax notification has levied a registration fee since 1 July 2017. The New Registration flow on gst.gov.in produces a TRN and an ARN, never a challan. A filing platform that leads with a headline price is quoting its own service fee.

Anyone asking whether there are any fees for GST registration is asking two questions at once, and only one of them has a government answer. A price gets mistaken for a fee in three places. The first is the filing platform's headline offer, which is a service fee and is set by the platform. The second is the quotation for a Digital Signature Certificate, which is a certifying authority's charge and reaches only some applicants. The third is the challan a casual taxable person generates, which is an advance deposit of that applicant's own tax and not a charge for the registration.

You can confirm all of this yourself, online. Open Services > Registration > New Registration on gst.gov.in and work through Part A. The portal issues a Temporary Reference Number and, on submission, an Application Reference Number. It never issues a challan for the registration itself, because there is nothing to pay. What follows Part A is set out in the ten steps.

Nothing in GST registration is chargeable by the government. The table below sets out every cost component of a GST registration, in order. The government fee is Rs 0 and Aadhaar authentication is free. A Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate is required only for seven constitutions. A casual or non-resident taxable person deposits estimated tax in advance under section 27(2). Professional assistance is optional, and this page publishes no professional fee. Registration does not expire, so nothing falls due for renewal.

The advance deposit is the only money the government takes at registration, and it belongs to the applicant. Section 27(1) makes a casual taxable person or non-resident registration valid for the period applied for or ninety days, whichever is earlier, extendable once by up to a further ninety days. The proviso to section 27(2) requires a further deposit for that extension. The amount is the applicant's own estimate of the tax payable for the period, which is why no figure for it can be quoted by anyone.

There is nothing to calculate. Nothing about the fees for GST registration varies with the entity, the State or the turnover, so any calculator that returns a number is pricing somebody's service rather than a government charge.

Nothing is chargeable by the government for any entity type. A proprietorship, a partnership firm, an LLP, a company, a trust and a society all pay Rs 0. What differs by entity type is how the application is signed. Instruction 7 to FORM GST REG-01 requires a Class 3 DSC for seven constitutions. Those seven are public, private, unlimited and foreign companies, LLPs, foreign LLPs and public sector undertakings. Everyone else may sign by Aadhaar e-Sign or EVC. A proprietor with Aadhaar linked to a live mobile number needs no DSC.

Rule 26(1) is often cited for this requirement. As it now stands it prescribes no constitution-specific mode, its provisos having been omitted with effect from 1 November 2021, and the mandate is in Instruction 7 to FORM GST REG-01.

What makes the work heavier by entity type is not the fee, which does not vary, but the number of people and documents involved. Every promoter or partner whose Aadhaar has to authenticate adds a step. So does the constitution document that must be uploaded, whether that is a partnership deed, a certificate of incorporation, a board resolution or a letter of authorisation. A Rule 14A applicant has one more: the Primary Authorised Signatory and at least one Promoter or Partner must both authenticate, under GSTN's advisory of 1 November 2025 read with the FORM GST REG-32 instructions. A non-resident taxable person applies in FORM GST REG-09, which under Rule 13 must be signed by an authorised signatory resident in India holding a valid PAN.

GST registration fees do not differ by State. The government fee is Rs 0 in Delhi, in Uttar Pradesh and in every State. Registration is granted under the same rules everywhere, and no State levies its own fee. Three things vary by State, and none is a fee. The Rs 10 lakh special-category turnover threshold is the first. Which Facilitation Centre you attend for biometric verification is the second. Which jurisdiction processes your file is the third. Any state-wise fee table you find is that publisher's own price list.

The special-category threshold is set out on the turnover page. Biometric verification has been legally applicable across all States and Union Territories since 10 July 2024, with GSTN's Suvidha Kendra rollout completed in phases through 2024–2025.

You do not need a CA to register for GST. Section 25 and Rule 8 let any applicant file FORM GST REG-01 on gst.gov.in. No provision of GST law requires a professional. A single-State proprietor with an Aadhaar-linked mobile and clean documents can file unaided. A professional earns the fee where the application stops being routine. Multiple States, rented or virtual premises, a REG-03 query and a prior rejection are those cases. You may instead authorise an authorised signatory under Rule 8. An enrolled GST practitioner may act under section 48 read with Rule 83.

An authorised signatory is a person you name inside FORM GST REG-01, usually a partner, director or employee, and appointing one incurs no CA fees because it is not a professional engagement at all. An enrolled goods and services tax practitioner is a separate statutory role, enrolled in FORM GST PCT-01 under Rule 83, and section 48 sets out what such a person may do on your behalf. Section 48(3) leaves responsibility for the correctness of anything filed with the registered person, whoever prepared it.

Keeping a GSTIN costs Rs 0 in government fees. There is no annual renewal fee and no maintenance charge. A registration granted under section 25 does not expire. What a GSTIN costs you is filing work, and seven things determine it. Non-filing is the expensive option. Section 47(1) charges a late fee for every day of delay, as reduced by notification for nil and small-turnover returns. That late fee is capped, and it runs per Act. Section 50(1) charges interest on tax paid late, notified at 18% a year.

Every extra State is a second GSTIN and a second set of returns

Section 25(1) requires a separate registration in every State where you are liable. Two GSTINs mean two GSTR-1s and two GSTR-3Bs every period, not one filing covering both.

Filing under QRMP replaces twelve GSTR-3B filings a year with four

Rule 61A lets a registered person furnish GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B quarterly under the proviso to section 39(1) while paying tax monthly. Rule 61A(2) pushes you back to monthly filing once aggregate turnover exceeds Rs 5 crore.

A nil return still has to be filed, and still attracts a late fee

A period with no sales does not remove the filing obligation. The return still has to be furnished, and section 47(1) still runs, which is why nil filing is cheap to do and expensive to skip.

E-invoicing starts at Rs 5 crore of aggregate turnover

Notification No. 10/2023-Central Tax dated 10 May 2023 applied e-invoicing under Rule 48(4) to taxpayers with aggregate turnover above Rs 5 crore from 1 August 2023. Crossing that line adds an IRN step to every B2B invoice.

GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C add an annual layer on top of the monthly one

Rule 80(1) requires an annual return in FORM GSTR-9 by 31 December following the financial year. Rule 80(3) adds a self-certified reconciliation statement in FORM GSTR-9C where aggregate turnover exceeds Rs 5 crore.

Reconciliation volume drives the cost more than turnover does

Matching purchase invoices against GSTR-2B is the work that scales. A business with 40 invoices a month and a business with 4,000 file the same two returns, and the second costs several times more to service.

Withdrawing from Rule 14A in FORM GST REG-32 is work nobody has priced

Rule 14A(5) requires returns for a minimum of one tax period where the application is filed on or after 1 April 2026, and all returns due to date. Rule 14A(7) can route the withdrawal through biometric verification.

Every one of those seven drivers carries a government fee of Rs 0. The whole of the ongoing cost of a GSTIN is your time or someone else's.

Failing to obtain registration when liable is an offence under section 122(1)(xi) of the CGST Act, 2017. The penalty is fixed by the closing words of section 122(1): Rs 10,000 or an amount equivalent to the tax evaded, whichever is higher. An equal penalty arises under the corresponding State GST Act.

The ten per cent figure comes from section 122(2)(a), read with section 73(9), and the hundred per cent figure from section 122(2)(b). Section 122(2) opens by addressing any registered person who supplies goods or services on which tax has not been paid, has been short-paid or has been erroneously refunded, or where input tax credit has been wrongly availed or utilised, and clauses (a) and (b) take their subject from those opening words. On that opening, neither clause reaches a person who never registered at all. That reading is an inference from the opening words of section 122(2) rather than a decided holding.

Section 25(1) gives you thirty days from becoming liable to apply. Applying late costs you the input tax credit of the intervening period.

Widely-read pages apply the section 122(2)(a) 10% figure to a failure to register. That is wrong on the face of the sub-section: section 122(2) reaches a registered person who has short-paid, and a person who never registered is not one.

The Rs 2.5 lakh in Rule 14A is not a fee. Rule 14A(1) caps a Rule 14A registrant's output tax on B2B supplies at Rs 2,50,000 a month. The cap counts central tax, State or Union territory tax, integrated tax and compensation cess. The cap is not a turnover limit, and B2C output tax falls outside it. Opting into Rule 14A costs Rs 0, like every other registration route. Rule 14A is a simplified registration route, not an Aadhaar authentication rule.

Eligibility, the three-working-day grant and the exit in FORM GST REG-32 are set out at Rule 14A.

GST registration is free because no law prescribes a fee for it. Section 25 read with Rule 8 prescribes the application, not a charge. FORM GST REG-01 has no fee field, no challan and no payment step. No Central Tax notification has levied a registration fee in nine years. A registration granted under section 25 has no expiry date. Nothing falls due for renewal, so no renewal fee exists. Casual and non-resident registrations are the one exception to that permanence. Section 27(1) limits those to the period applied for or ninety days.

• Government fee for GST registration: Rs 0 (NIL). No fee is prescribed under section 25 read with Rule 8.
• No fee field in the form: FORM GST REG-01 has no fee column, no challan and no payment step.
• No notification levies one: no Central Tax notification has prescribed a registration fee since 1 July 2017.
• Aadhaar authentication: Rs 0 (NIL). Free OTP authentication under Rule 8(4A).
• Renewal fee: Not applicable. Registration under section 25 does not expire.