The West Bengal Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) observed that a in cases where a registered person carries on separate type of businesses from same place of business within a State, he cannot opt to obtain separate registration within the said State.
The applicant is a registered person under the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and is engaged in the business of manufacturing and reselling of goods and also in providing of services. The applicant intends to carry on business activities from other states too.
The questions raised by the applicant, Aesthetik Engineers Private Limited are in respect of requirement of registration. However, while the first two questions are related to registration in the State of West Bengal, rest of the questions are in relation to requirement of registration in other States. We first proceed to deal with the issue whether this authority can decide requirement of registration of the applicant in a State other than the State of West Bengal.
The applicant submitted that sub-section (2) of section 25 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST) provides for a single registration in a State or Union territory. However, as per proviso to the said subsection, a person having multiple places of business in a State or Union territory may be granted a separate registration for each such place of business, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.
The applicant further submitted that a conjoint reading of the aforesaid provisions of the CGST Act and the rules that if a taxable person has been carrying on business of manufacturing/reselling/providing services from same place of business i.e. same address, such taxable person is not required to take separate registration for each type of business i.e. manufacturing/reselling/providing services but there is no bar under the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 to get sperate registration for each type of business from same place of business.
Rule 11 of the CGST / WBGST Rules, 2017 has also undergone an amendment with effect from 01.02.2019 wherein the manner for ‘Separate registration for multiple business verticals within a State or a Union territory’ has been substituted by ‘Separate registration for multiple places of business within a State or a Union territory’. Further, a new rule 41A has also been inserted w.e.f. 01.02.2019 prescribing the manner for transfer of credit on obtaining separate registration for multiple places of business within a State or Union territory.
A Two-Member Bench of the Authority comprising Sarthak Saxena, Joint Commissioner, CGST & CX and Joyjit Banik, Senior Joint Commissioner, SGST observed that “In other words, option for separate registration may be availed by a registered person provided such registered person has multiple places of business. Therefore, in cases where a registered person carries on separate type of businesses from same place of business within a State, he cannot opt to obtain separate registration within the said State as per proviso to sub-section (2) of section 25 of the GST Act read with rules made there under.”
“As per proviso to sub-section (2) of section 25 of the GST Act, separate registration in a State may be granted to a person who has multiple places of business in that State” the Authority concluded.
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