Ask Veda
Selling on Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho or your own D2C site starts with GST and a brand you own. Category licences follow what you sell.
What each registration is, who issues it and when it applies to an online store. Rules vary by state and by size — treat this as the map, and ask us about your exact case.
Mandatory to sell across states on marketplaces · CBIC
Required once aggregate turnover crosses the threshold — ₹40 lakh for goods and ₹20 lakh for services in most states — and in some cases from the first sale, such as most inter-state supplies of goods.
If you sell food · FSSAI
Every food business that makes, stores, sells or serves food needs a basic registration, a state licence or a central licence. Which one depends on turnover and activity; from 1 April 2026 the slabs are ₹1.5 crore (basic) and ₹50 crore (state).
If you export · DGFT
The Importer-Exporter Code — needed to clear exports and imports through customs and to receive foreign payments against exports of goods.
For packaged goods you pack or import
Manufacturers, packers and importers of pre-packaged goods must register under the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 and print the mandatory declarations — MRP, net quantity, manufacturer or importer details and consumer-care contact — on every pack.
Brand owners using plastic packaging · CPCB
Producers, importers and brand owners that use plastic packaging must register on the CPCB's centralised EPR portal and meet yearly collection, recycling and reporting obligations under the Plastic Waste Management Rules.
Recommended · limited liability
A separate legal entity with limited liability — the structure investors, banks and larger customers expect, and the only common one that can issue equity and ESOPs.
Recommended · brand registry on marketplaces
Protects your brand name and logo across India, and is what marketplace brand-registry programmes ask for. Filing early fixes your date of priority.
Recommended · benefits
A free, Aadhaar-based registration that classifies you as a micro, small or medium enterprise — used for priority-sector credit, protection against delayed payments and preferences in government tenders.
Some registrations need another one first — this is the sequence that avoids rework.
After the registrations come the returns and filings that keep you compliant.
GST returns, bookkeeping, TDS and annual filings — everything a business like yours has to keep doing, in one place.
See the compliance pack →City guides with the local authorities, fees and timelines.
What people starting an online store ask us most.
Since 1 October 2023 a seller of goods below the threshold who sells only within their own state can enrol with PAN instead of registering. Selling to other states still needs GST registration.
Not legally — but brand-registry programmes need at least a filed application, and filing early stops someone else registering your name first.
Marketplaces collect tax at source under GST (section 52) — 0.5% of net taxable supplies since 10 July 2024 — and you claim it in your electronic cash ledger.
Every sector, with its own checklist.
A CA or CS confirms which of these apply to you, in your state, and handles the ones we cover.