What Is the GST Registration Threshold Limit?

Suppliers of goods: Normal States: ₹40 lakh aggregate turnover. Special category States: ₹10 lakh (Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura).

Service providers: Normal States: ₹20 lakh aggregate turnover. Special category States: ₹10 lakh (Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura).

GST registration is compulsory once aggregate turnover exceeds ₹40 lakh for goods in normal States, or ₹20 lakh for services in normal States. Section 22(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 fixes ₹20 lakh as the general limit and ₹10 lakh where supplies are made from a special category State. Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax dated 7 March 2019 exempts a supplier engaged exclusively in the supply of goods from registration up to ₹40 lakh. The limit is measured on turnover, not on profit and not on income. Liability arises only when turnover exceeds the figure, so turnover exactly equal to ₹20 lakh does not trigger registration.

Special category States, for section 22 of the CGST Act, means Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. The ₹10 lakh figure for goods in those four States is this firm's reading of the statute and departs from two CBIC taxpayer publications, which state ₹20 lakh. See "Why does this page say ₹10 lakh for goods in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura when CBIC says ₹20 lakh?" below.

All three figures are unchanged. Section 22 has not been amended since the Finance (No. 2) Act 2019 provision that took effect on 1 January 2020, and the Ministry of Finance restated the ₹40 lakh figure in its “Nine Years of GST” backgrounder of 30 June 2026. The two instruments behind the ₹40 lakh figure are downloadable in full: the gazette text of Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax dated 7 March 2019 and the corrigendum of 29 March 2019 that relabelled its clauses.

The GST registration turnover limit in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura is ₹10 lakh of aggregate turnover, for goods and for services alike. Those four States are the only special category States left in section 22 of the CGST Act, and the first proviso to section 22(1) fixes their limit at ten lakh rupees. The ₹40 lakh exemption for goods does not reach them, because clause (c) of Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax excludes intra-State suppliers in those four States from it. Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are not special category States for registration. Assam and Himachal Pradesh carry the ordinary ₹40 lakh goods and ₹20 lakh services limits; Uttarakhand carries ₹20 lakh for goods as well, because clause (c) of Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax names it, and ₹20 lakh for services. A supplier in the four States is liable from ₹10,00,001 of aggregate turnover, whatever the supply type.

Section 22(1) applies only to a supplier in a State or Union territory “other than special category States”. The first proviso governs these four instead, and it says ten lakh rupees. Explanation (iii) to section 22 leaves exactly these four standing. Two CBIC taxpayer publications say ₹20 lakh for goods in those four States, and the conflict and its resolution follow immediately below. The list of four comes from Explanation (iii) to section 22 read with article 279A(4)(g).

The goods threshold in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura is ₹10 lakh, not ₹20 lakh. Section 22(1) of the CGST Act applies only to a supplier in a State “other than special category States”, so it does not reach those four at all. The first proviso to section 22(1) governs them instead, and it says ten lakh rupees. The ₹40 lakh exemption cannot rescue a goods supplier there, because clause (c) of Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax excludes intra-State suppliers in those States. To lift ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh, the Government would have to issue a notification under the second proviso to section 22(1), and no such notification has ever been issued.

This is exhaustive within CBIC's own notification database, rather than a “not found” result.

What CBIC's own publications say, and why we do not follow them

Two CBIC taxpayer publications say ₹20 lakh. Neither is law, neither is a circular, neither carries any status under section 168 of the CGST Act, and both are on Government hosts, so a reader will find them.

CBIC's GST - An Update (CBIC / DG Taxpayer Services, as on 01.06.2019), at cbic-gst.gov.in/pdf/01062019-GST-An-Update.pdf, prints: “Threshold limits of aggregate turnover for exemption from registration and payment of GST for the suppliers of goods would be Rs. 40 lakhs and Rs. 20 lakhs (in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand) with effect from 01.04.2019.” The same slide uses the four-State list for the ₹10 lakh services figure and the ten-State list for the ₹20 lakh goods figure.

The CBIC / DGTS flyer Registration under GST Law, hosted at gstcouncil.gov.in/sites/default/files/e-version-gst-flyers/Registration_under_GST_Law_new.pdf, prints: “small businesses having all India aggregate turnover below Rupees 40 Lakh (in case of exclusive supply of goods) (Rupees 20 lakh if business is in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand) and Rupees 20 lakhs (in case of supply of services or in case of mixed supplies) (Rupees 10 lakh if business is in States of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura) need not register.” It reserves ₹10 lakh to services in the four States, and it cites no notification for the ₹20 lakh goods figure.

Both take the ten States that clause (c) of Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax excludes from ₹40 lakh, and move all ten into a ₹20 lakh column, without asking whether the four special category States among those ten can reach ₹20 lakh under section 22(1) at all. Six of the other seven reach it because Parliament removed them from the definition. The four cannot reach it without a notification.

CBIC's own live FAQ says something different again, and it has not been touched since December 2021. The figure ₹40 lakh does not appear on that page at all. The FAQ page on cbic-gst.gov.in answers a registration question with “He is liable to register if the aggregate turnover (all India) is more than 20 lacs (Rs. 10 lacs in Special Category States)”, and elsewhere with “(Rs. 10 lacs in 11 special category States)”: ₹10 lakh, with no goods-and-services split. The page's own footer reads Last Updated: 03 December 2021, and that stamp is page-specific rather than site-wide; it is also a hand-maintained footer variable, so it evidences “not touched since December 2021” rather than a certified revision date. The page therefore predates the ₹40 lakh exemption and the 2018 narrowing of the definition to four States and reflects neither, which means it is not authority for our position either. We record it because it shows that the departmental estate is not internally consistent on this point, and that none of it is law.

The Council did intend ₹20 lakh. PIB Release ID 1567975 (07.03.2019), recording the 32nd GST Council decision, states: “There would be two Threshold Limits … Rs. 40 lakhs and Rs. 20 lakhs. States would have an option to decide about one of the limits.” For the seven States removed from the definition, ₹20 lakh followed automatically. For the four that remain, delivering ₹20 lakh required a notification under the second proviso to section 22(1), and it was never issued.

No court, tribunal or AAR has decided the point. As at 24 August 2026 there is no authority in either direction: none on the goods threshold in those four States, none on the interaction of Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax with the first proviso to section 22(1), and none on the second or third proviso at all. Ten Indian Kanoon searches and sweeps of the government hosts return nothing; the phrase “second proviso to sub-section (1) of section 22” returns 3,743 hits, and not one of them is a GST case. Every hit is Income-tax Act, Industrial Disputes Act or PMLA.

A taxpayer in those four States who registers at ₹10 lakh is safe. He is registered where the statute says he must be, and nothing is lost by registering early. A taxpayer who relies on CBIC's ₹20 lakh has a legitimate-expectation argument but no statutory footing. He can point to two Government publications, and he cannot point to a notification. Which of those two positions you would rather be in, if the department takes the point, is the whole of the practical advice.

Section 24 of the CGST Act requires thirteen categories of persons to register whatever their turnover. Section 24 opens with the words “Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) of section 22”, so it displaces the ₹40 lakh, ₹20 lakh and ₹10 lakh figures entirely. A person making any inter-State taxable supply of goods must register under section 24(i) from the first such supply. A person supplying through an electronic commerce operator required to collect tax at source must register under section 24(ix). A person liable to pay tax under reverse charge must register under section 24(iii). For anyone inside section 24, the turnover threshold is not the test and the numbers on this page are irrelevant.

• Inter-State taxable supply of goods
• Casual taxable persons
• Non-resident taxable persons
• Persons paying tax under reverse charge
• Persons supplying through e-commerce operators collecting TCS
• E-commerce operators required to collect TCS
• Input Service Distributors
• Persons required to deduct tax under section 51

Section 24(xii) lets the Government notify further classes on the Council's recommendation, so the list is a floor and not a ceiling. Section 24(ix) has one narrow exception for small suppliers of goods within a single State, which is where marketplace sellers should start. That exception, and how a seller uses it, is worked out on the e-commerce GST registration page.

Four States are special category States for GST registration: Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Explanation (iii) to section 22 of the CGST Act defines the term as the States specified in sub-clause (g) of clause (4) of article 279A of the Constitution, and then removes seven of the eleven States that article names. Jammu and Kashmir was removed with effect from 8 July 2017 by the Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act, 2017. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Uttarakhand were removed with effect from 1 February 2019 by the Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018. Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have therefore been outside the definition for more than seven years.

Most published lists still carry the pre-2019 set of eleven. The constitutional list has not changed, but the section 22 definition that draws on it has changed twice. The same four States are the ₹10 lakh case under Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax after its 2019 substitution, which is the subject of the inter-State services section below.

Ten States and Union territories are outside the ₹40 lakh limit for goods: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand. Clause (c) of Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax dated 7 March 2019 excludes persons making intra-State supplies in those ten from the exemption. The notification is drafted as a nationwide exemption with ten carve-outs, not as an opt-in that individual States elected. A goods supplier inside any of the ten falls back on section 22(1), which is ₹20 lakh, or ₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Suppliers of ice cream, pan masala and tobacco are outside the ₹40 lakh limit everywhere in India.

Most coverage describes this as States “choosing” or “opting for” a new limit, which reads as though a State could switch at any time. The instrument does the opposite. It is a single exemption notification issued under section 23(2) of the CGST Act, in force from 1 April 2019, naming ten places where it does not apply. A corrigendum dated 29 March 2019 relabelled its clauses (iii) and (iv) as (c) and (d), so the clauses are cited as (a), (b), (c) and (d). Both documents are downloadable in full: Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax dated 7 March 2019 (gazette PDF) and the corrigendum dated 29 March 2019 (gazette PDF).

Aggregate turnover is the aggregate value of all taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports of goods or services or both, and inter-State supplies of persons having the same Permanent Account Number, computed on an all-India basis. Section 2(6) of the CGST Act, 2017 excludes central tax, State tax, Union territory tax, integrated tax and cess from that value. Section 2(6) also excludes the value of inward supplies on which tax is payable on reverse charge basis. Exempt supplies count towards the threshold even though no GST is charged on them. Exports count towards the threshold even though they are zero-rated. Aggregate turnover is computed on the PAN, so every GSTIN held on that PAN feeds the same total.

A consultant with ₹14 lakh of domestic fees and ₹9 lakh of exported services has ₹23 lakh of aggregate turnover and is liable at ₹20 lakh, even though every rupee of the export of services is zero-rated. Aggregate turnover is not the profit and loss figure, not net of expenses, and not the “annual aggregate turnover” the portal displays for e-invoicing.

Turnover in another State counts towards the same threshold, because aggregate turnover is computed on one Permanent Account Number across all India. A person holding two GSTINs on one PAN adds both States' turnover together and tests the total against a single limit. Section 2(6) of the CGST Act settles it in seven words: “to be computed on all India basis”. A branch that is below the limit on its own is therefore not below the limit if the PAN-level total is above it. Once the PAN-level total is crossed, liability to register arises in every State from which that person makes a taxable supply.

Worked example 1. Anil Traders, one PAN, two GSTINs.

Neither State's own figure crosses ₹40 lakh. Karnataka is ₹25,00,000 and Maharashtra is ₹16,00,000, and the PAN-level total of ₹41,00,000 is what makes Anil Traders liable. The ₹6,00,000 of exempt supply and the ₹5,00,000 export are what push it over, and no GST is charged on either of them.

Worked example 2. The exclusivity trap, same firm. Anil Traders bills one customer ₹50,000 for installation. It is no longer engaged exclusively in the supply of goods, so Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax does not apply to it, and the ₹20 lakh limit in section 22(1) governs the whole ₹41,50,000 rather than the ₹50,000 of service. The Explanation to section 22(1), inserted with the third proviso and expressed to operate “for the purposes of this sub-section”, preserves exclusivity where the only service is an exempt supply of services by way of extending deposits, loans or advances, where the consideration is interest or discount. Interest on a fixed deposit does not break exclusivity; an installation fee does.

A person who supplies from two States needs a separate registration in each State under section 25(1). The threshold is tested once, on the PAN, and the registration obligation lands State by State. The mechanics of how to register for GST are on the main registration page.

Inter-State supply of services does not by itself require registration if aggregate turnover stays within the limit. Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax dated 13 October 2017 exempts persons making inter-State supplies of taxable services whose aggregate turnover, computed on an all-India basis, does not exceed ₹20 lakh. Its proviso, as substituted by Notification No. 03/2019-Integrated Tax dated 29 January 2019 with effect from 1 February 2019, reduces that figure to ₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Section 24(i) therefore bites from the first supply for inter-State supplies of goods; for services below the limit, the notification lifts the requirement. A consultant in Pune billing a client in Bengaluru is not required to register at ₹8 lakh of turnover.

Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax originally defined “special category States” by direct reference to article 279A(4)(g) other than Jammu and Kashmir, which was ten States. Notification No. 03/2019-Integrated Tax substituted that reference with “the first proviso to sub-section (1) of section 22 of the said Act, read with clause (iii) of the Explanation to the said section”. From 1 February 2019 the notification's ₹10 lakh figure therefore reaches exactly the same four States as section 22, and no others. The exemption covers services only, so a goods supplier crossing a State line has no equivalent relief.

Section 23 of the CGST Act puts two classes of person outside the registration requirement regardless of the threshold. A person engaged exclusively in supplying goods or services that are not liable to tax, or that are wholly exempt from tax, is not liable to register under section 23(1)(a). An agriculturist is not liable to register under section 23(1)(b), to the extent of supply of produce out of cultivation of land. Section 23(2) is the power under which the Government has issued the ₹40 lakh goods exemption and the inter-State services exemption. A person outside section 23 and below the threshold is not required to register but may still register voluntarily under section 25(3).

Exempt supplies still count towards aggregate turnover

Section 2(6) puts exempt supplies inside the total, so a trader whose sales are mostly exempt can still cross the threshold on the strength of them.

A person supplying only exempt goods or services is outside registration entirely

Section 23(1)(a) takes that person out regardless of turnover. The operative word is “exclusively”, and one taxable rupee removes the protection.

A person whose supplies are partly taxable is inside the ordinary threshold test

Section 23 does not reach a mixed supplier at all, so the ₹40 lakh, ₹20 lakh and ₹10 lakh figures decide the question in the ordinary way.

Registration is governed by sections 22 to 30 of the CGST Act, set out one by one on the law page. A person selling through a marketplace should read section 24(ix) before section 23, because section 24 decides the marketplace case before turnover is reached. Voluntary registration under section 25(3) remains open below the threshold, and the credit-versus-filing trade-off is worked through on the main registration page.

A business below the threshold is not required to register unless section 24 applies to it. Registration becomes compulsory only when aggregate turnover exceeds ₹20 lakh for services, ₹40 lakh for goods supplied exclusively, or ₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Section 24 overrides all three figures, so an inter-State supplier of goods, a marketplace seller or a person paying tax under reverse charge must register at any turnover. A business below the threshold and outside section 24 may still register voluntarily under section 25(3) of the CGST Act. Voluntary registration buys input tax credit and B2B credibility at the price of monthly or quarterly return filing.

An application is due within 30 days of becoming liable under section 25(1), and applying late shifts the effective date of registration and loses the intervening input tax credit. The main registration page works through both.

Legal form does not change the GST registration threshold. A private limited company, an LLP, a partnership firm, a section 8 company and a sole proprietor are all tested on the same aggregate turnover under section 22 and the same overriding categories under section 24. Section 22(1) applies to “every supplier”, and section 2(6) computes turnover on the Permanent Account Number, so the limit is measured on the entity's PAN. A newly incorporated company with no turnover is not liable to register unless section 24 applies to it. A section 8 company supplying only exempt services falls under section 23(1)(a) and is not liable to register at all.

The documents required to prove constitution of business differ by entity type, as do the persons whose Aadhaar is authenticated and who signs the application. A sole proprietor uploads no constitution certificate at all, and the proprietor's own PAN is the business's PAN, which is the subject of the page on GST for individuals. Incorporation itself does not trigger GST registration; the trigger is supply.

No. The ₹2,50,000 in Rule 14A is a monthly cap on output tax charged on supplies made to registered persons, and it is not a turnover threshold. Rule 14A(1) of the CGST Rules, 2017 measures output tax on supplies made to registered persons, comprising central tax, State or Union territory tax, integrated tax and compensation cess. Output tax on supplies to unregistered customers falls outside the computation entirely. Rule 14A has nothing to do with the ₹40 lakh, ₹20 lakh and ₹10 lakh figures, which sit in section 22 of the CGST Act and decide whether you must register at all. Rule 14A decides only how fast an application is granted.

Section 22 answers “must I register?”; Rule 14A answers “will the portal grant it in three working days?”. At 18%, ₹2,50,000 of output tax corresponds to roughly ₹13.9 lakh of monthly B2B taxable value. The rule is stated in output tax, not in turnover, and that conversion only shows the scale. Rule 14A was inserted by Notification No. 18/2025-Central Tax dated 31 October 2025 and took effect on 1 November 2025. The scheme, its conditions and the exit route are set out on the Rule 14A page.