Every person who was registered under old laws of taxation like Service Tax, Sales Tax, Excise, etc. had to mandatory migrate to GST. Many such persons are not liable to be registered under GST. For example, the threshold under VAT in most states was 5 lakhs whereas it is 20 lakhs under GST. However, do make sure you are not making inter-state supplies since registration is mandatory for inter-state suppliers except for service providers.

GST Registration is usually cancelled under following instances -

• The business has been discontinued
• The business has been transferred fully, amalgamated, de-merged or otherwise disposed —The transferee (or the new company from amalgamation/ demerger) has to get registered. The transferor will cancel its registration if it ceases to exist.
• There is a change in the constitution of the business (For example- Private limited company has changed to a public limited company)

After obtaining GST registration, if there is no business activity, the taxpayer needs to initiate GST cancellation as per the process laid out  above. If the taxpayer stops filing GST returns and lets the GST registration to be cancelled by the GST department, then he or she would not  be eligible to obtain another GST registration under the same PAN.

Also, in case a GST registration gets cancelled by the Government, the taxable person would first have to apply for revocation of GST registration cancellation by paying all the late fees (which could run into lakhs) and after restoration - cancel the GST properly or continue filing GST returns. Hence, once a GST registration is obtained, it is vital for the taxpayer to monitor compliance ,and in case of no business  activity, file for cancellation of GST registration at the earliest.

The submitted application is incomplete.

In the event of transfer, merger or amalgamation of business, the new entity hasn’t registered with the tax authority prior to the submission of application. In these situations, the concerned Officer provides a written intimation to the applicant regarding the nature of the discrepancy. In which case, the applicant is required to respond to the same within seven days of the date of receipt of the letter, failing which the concerned  Officer may reject the application after providing him/her with an opportunity to be heard.

Every person whose registration has been cancelled are required to file a final GST return in Form GSTR-10 within three months of the date of  cancellation or the date of order of cancellation, whichever is later. This is done to ensure that the taxpayer is devoid of liabilities. It may be  noted that Input Service Distributors or non-resident taxpayers who are required to pay tax under section 10, section 51 or section 52 are  exempted from this provision.

If the final GST return is not filed in Form GSTR-10, the taxpayer will be issued a notice in GSTR-3A, prompting him/her to do the same within  15 days of the issue of such notice. If the taxpayer fails to comply with the notice, initiatives will be taken to assess the liability of the  taxpayer based on the information available with the concerned Officer. The assessing order will be withdrawn if the applicant files the  return within 30 days of the issue of notice.