Is it possible to sell products online without a GST Number?

If the turnover is less than 20 Lakhs no registration under GST is required. Only those people whose turnover is less than Rs. 20 Lakhs/- no registration is to be taken. Some states may be having this limit up to Rs.40/- Lakhs. It will be the same whether it is an online business or offline business.

The exemption limit for service providers is Rs 20 lakhs and in the case of Special Category States, it is Rs 10 lakhs.

There is a scheme called GST Composition Scheme. As per this scheme, small traders and businesses can pay a 1 percent tax based on turnover. The turnover should not be more than 1.5 crores under this plan.

Under these exemptions, your friend can continue business without taking any registration.

When you ask selling through online, the main sources of sell are Amazone, Flipkart,e bay etc. These are some platforms acting like commission agents where you can sell your products using their popular brand name. In such platforms, you can sell online without GST only if you sell goods which are exempted. If you sell goods on which GST is applicable, then you have to get GST number to be able to sell online. You have to take GSTIN even if turnover is less than Rs. 20 lakh.

There is another question which asking commonly that one can add their GSTIN in a later stage in these online platforms. For this question, the simple answer is that Amazon and PayTm gives the option to their buyers to add his GSTIN. But Flipkart doesn't give such an option. GSTIN is compulsorily required to be mentioned in invoices to enable buyers to take an input tax credit of GST.

GST return filing procedure is the same for both online and offline users. At present, GSTR-3B is to be filed every month up to 20th of the next month. Also, GSTR-1 is to be filed for every quarter (April to June, July to Sep …….) by the end of next month. Persons whose turnover exceeds Rs. 1.5 crore are required to file GSTR-1 on a monthly basis up to 11th of next month. A person whose turnover is less than Rs. 1.5 crore can opt voluntarily for monthly filing of GSTR-1 and once opted, it cannot be changed for that year.

Hi Vimaldev,
How to know , whether product/goods have GST exempted or not?

Small offline businesses that are having turnover below Rs 20 lakhs need not to pay GST but this is not applicable for the online businesses. In online one has to mandatory register for GST and pay it as per the stipulated rates for a particular category of merchandise. This is an important point if one is going to start an online store or selling point under some platform. It is also mandatory to file the GST returns periodically for online transactions and deposit the tax in time.

When one wants to make an online selling business then there are two modes of doing it. First one is simple where one sells the material through one's website and it is straightforward and standard GST filing rules would apply as applicable to online transactions. The second model is e-commerce aggregator model. In this model the platform through which one is doing selling would deduct 2% TCS (Tax collected at source) before giving the money to the seller. So the seller has to take account of this TCS amount as a deduction while filing GST returns. Another important thing is that the aggregator would also file its GST return and the data in its return and the seller's return must match to avoid any questioning from the GST authorities. Another thing is that seller can avail input tax credit (ITC) also if he has paid GST to the raw material suppliers and sold the converted products subsequently.

As regards your query for the items exempted for tax under GST regime, there are many items which are exempted and mainly they are like Milk products, Honey, Eggs, Fruits, Dry fruits, Plants, Vegetables, Pizza, Cake, Bread, Pasta & Waffles, Books, Brochures, Newspapers etc. If the items one wants to sell is beyond this list then one can see more details of the specific exempted items in the Govt GST site.

We can sell online in Market places like Flipkart and Amazon. Here one does not require GST number if their turnover is less than 20 lakhs. When you are working on a 9 to 6 job, having a secondary income can make you independent in the future. There are many ways where we can make our second income either selling products on the online market. It is one of the best ways to generate more income. Some times it will not be easy to list your company on Flipkart, Amazon and in Snapdeal because both need VAT and GST to become a seller. There are many market place where we do not need VAT and GST and some of them are as follows.

1. eBay:
is having more sellers to their team and we do not need any registration and we can start selling by just creating an account on the eBay and as well as in PaisaPay, which is the Payment service of eBay account. For registering to PaisaPay account, we need a bank account which will be linked to seller account.

2. CraftsVilla:
is an online market place, where we can sell our handmade and organic products. Here VAT certificate is not needed to list your product.

3. Fleaffair:
is an online market where we can sell our handmade products just like shoes, fashion accessories, gift items and chocolates.

4. Infibeam:
is one of second-largest e-commerce company having more than 100 crore revenue. Here we do not need any VAT and GST but we need a PAN card.

If you wish to sell online then the answer to your query is 'No'.
Reason for it is simple that as per the current provisions of GST even if you are exempt from GST registration still you will have to take GST registration if, you want to sell online on platforms like Flipkart, Amazon or others.

Although there is composition scheme for small sellers/shopkeepers who do not want to go into too much of compliance formalities which is called the 'Composition Scheme' Here the rate of GST is very low i.e. varies between 1 to 6% depending upon the nature of business.
Even if you opt for Composition Scheme you will not be able to sell online as it is specifically mentioned that the business that ops for Composition scheme will not be able to do inter state supplies.

Now, reason for not allowing person who do not have GST to sell online is that the GST has 2 components, i.e. CGST and SGST. CGST is Central Government Sales Tax and SGST is State Government Sales Tax. In case you buy something from vendor which is registered under GST you will see that the invoice issued will always contains both CGST and SGST and that too in equal amount. This is the share of Central and State Government.

Now if you sell something without GST, then the state in which the goods is supplied will not get any share of tax from your sale and you may declare your income and pay tax on same but that will go to the Central Government, so the state exchequer will be in loss.

Please note that these days the Government of India has issued guidelines to sell the products with the proper invoice and eWay bills. The invoice value more than INR 50000 is required the eWay Bill (mandatory).

The basic requirement of eWay Bill is GST Number.

We need to issued eWay bill for all supplies every time and the most of online portal sites issued eWay bill for all supplies even the value is less than INR 50000.

Some websites like Amazon or Flipkart does not require GST number till the turnover reaches INR 20 Lakhs.

As regards your query for the items exempted for tax under GST regime, there are many items which are exempted and mainly they are like Milk products, Honey, Eggs, Fruits, Dry fruits, Plants, Vegetables, Pizza, Cake, Bread, Pasta & Waffles, Books, Brochures, Newspapers etc. If the items one wants to sell is beyond this list then one can see more details of the specific exempted items in the Govt GST site.