I. Provisions under the GST Act
Sub-sections (2), (4) and (5) of Section 25 specifies the following person as the distinct person:
(2) A person seeking registration under this Act shall be granted a single registration in a State or Union territory: Provided that a person having multiple business verticals in a State or Union territory may be granted a separate registration for each business vertical, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.
(4) A person who has obtained or is required to obtain more than one registration, whether in one State or Union territory or more than one State or Union territory shall, in respect of each such registration, be treated as distinct persons for the purposes of this Act.
(5) Where a person who has obtained or is required to obtain registration in a State or Union territory in respect of an establishment, has an establishment in another State or Union territory, then such establishments shall be treated as establishments of distinct persons for the purposes of this Act.
II. The meaning of the clauses are explained below:
A. DIFFERENT BUSINESS VERTICALS
i. As per Section 25 (2) of the GST Act every person shall obtain one registration per State. Proviso to section 25(2) provides that a person having multiple business verticals may obtain separate registration for each business vertical in the State.
ii. The business vertical has been defined in Section 2(18) of GST Act as follows:
(18) 'business vertical' means a distinguishable component of an enterprise that is engaged in the supply of individual goods or services or a group of related goods or services which is subject to risks and returns that are different from those of the other business verticals.
Explanation.- For the purposes of this clause, factors that should be considered in determining whether goods or services are related include -
B. REGISTERED ESTABLISHMENT IN DIFFERENT STATE
(a) the nature of the goods or services;
(b) the nature of the production processes;
(c) the type or class of customers for the goods or services;
(d) the methods used to distribute the goods or supply of services; and
(e) the nature of the regulatory environment (wherever applicable), including banking, insurance, or public utilities;
i. As per section 22(1), every supplier shall be liable to be registered under GST Act in the State other than special category states where he makes the supply of goods or services provided his aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds Rs. 20 lakhs. Thus registration is required to be obtained in the State from where the person makes the taxable supply.
ii. As per section 25(4), place of business in one State where registration is obtained and place of business in other State where registration is obtained will be treated as a distinct person.
iii. For example, if a person has one place of business in Maharashtra for which registration is obtained and another place of business of the same person in Gujarat for which registration is obtained then such place of businesses will be considered as a distinct person.
C. ESTABLISHMENT IN DIFFERENT STATE
i. As per Section 22(1) every person is required to obtain registration in a State from where taxable supplies are made by him provided his aggregate turnover exceeds Rs 20 lakhs or 10 lakhs as the case may be.
ii. Say registration is obtained by a person in the state for the place of business from where he is making the taxable supply and he also has an office in another state where registration is not obtained then as per section 25(5) both the establishment will be treated as a distinct person.