The GST Department under the Finance Ministry is all set to develop the registration system for shared warehouse for e-commerce.
Under Goods and Services Tax ( GST ) law, suppliers to an e-commerce platform can store their goods at a common warehouse. However, the suppliers in their GST registration are required to show the warehouse as an additional place of business.
“We are working to see whether a ‘shared workplace’ or ‘coworking space’ concept can be implemented for the warehouses maintained by e-commerce companies to store goods of multiple suppliers. It is currently in the phase of discussion. Whether a shared workplace concept can be implemented for e-commerce warehouses would be discussed at the law committee and then presented before the GST Councilā an official from the GST Department confirmed.
The official highlighted that when multiple taxpayers register at a single warehouse, the geo-tag reflects the same address for all. This sends a signal to the tax officer that numerous taxpayers are based at one location and this might be a possible fraudulent registration.
The other issue is that the warehouse where multiple suppliers store their goods should not be held accountable for the default of a single supplier. Additionally, there is a risk that tax officers might attribute such risks to the e-commerce operators themselves, potentially affecting their businesses, the official added.
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