Meaning of GST Registration Certificate and uses

Every taxpayer who has successfully registered under GST is issued a GST registration certificate in Form GST REG-06. It contains the GST Identification Number (GSTIN), the principal and additional places of business. The registration certificate is available for downloading only on the GST Portal, and the government does not issue any physical certificate. 

The type of taxpayers includes regular, TDS and TCS applicants under GST, those who are liable to obtain unique Identity Number under Section 25(9) of the CGST Act, non-residents including those that are providing OIDAR services, and the taxpayers who migrated from the pre-GST laws. The certificate is signed or verified using EVC by the verifying tax officer before sending it to the taxpayer.

The taxpayer is required to display this certificate at his primary place of business, as well as other additional places of business listed in the Form GST REG-06. It is laid down in CGST Rule 18(1) and any failure can attract a penalty of up to Rs.25,000.

Whenever there is any amendment to the GST registration particulars, the GST portal allows the taxpayer or user to download the fresh GST registration certificate with the amended particulars.

The validity period of the GST Registration Certificate

The GST registration certificate is valid from the date when the person became liable to GST registration if they submitted the registration application within thirty days from such liable date. If not, then validity begins from the date of granting the certificate under the CGST Rules 9(1), 9(3) and 9(5). 

If an application falls under cases of delay by the officer under the CGST Rule 9(5), then the officer must send the signed registration certificate within three working days from the period given under the same sub rule.

The certificate does not have any time limit for expiry if issued to all the regular taxpayers. As long as the GST registration is valid and not surrendered or cancelled, it remains valid. For a casual taxable person, since the GST registration remains valid for a maximum of ninety days, the registration certificate turns invalid after that. However, the taxpayer can extend its validity or renew by the end of the validity period.

Contents of a GST Registration Certificate

The GST registration certificate contains the main certificate along with two annexures- Annexure- A and Annexure-B.

Following are the contents of the main GST registration certificate:

1. The GSTIN of the taxpayer
2. Trade Name and Legal Name
3. Type of Business Constitution (Eg: Partnership, Company, Proprietorship, Trust, etc)
4. Address of the Principal Place of Business
5. Date of Liability
6. Period of Validity. Usually, there is a date mentioned for ‘From date’. However, regular taxpayers will not have a date mentioned for ‘To date’. That would be found in cases of casual taxable persons or non-resident taxable persons.
7. Type of registration
8. Particulars of the Approving authority- Name, designation, jurisdictional office, and signature (usually digitally signed).
9. Date of issuing the certificate

The details found in Annexure-A are as follows-

1. The GSTIN
2. The Legal Name
3. The Trade Name (if found)
4. Additional Places of Business 

The details found in Annexure-B are as follows-

1. The GSTIN
2. The Legal Name
3. The Trade Name (if applicable)
4. Information of proprietor, partners, Karta, managing and whole-time director, the board of trustees, etc. such as photo, name, designation or status and a resident of which State.