Multi State GST for Amazon and Flipkart Sellers: VPOB and APOB Explained
If your stock sits in a fulfilment centre in another state, you need a GST number in that state. You do not need an office there. Here is how sellers do it for about ₹2,000 a month.
This one catches out almost every seller who moves from self shipping to a marketplace warehouse. The rule is simple and expensive to ignore: GST is a state subject, and if your goods are stored in a state, you need a registration in that state.
Amazon FBA, Flipkart FBF, Meesho, Myntra and Nykaa all work this way. Your stock sits in their fulfilment centre. That centre is in Haryana or Karnataka or Telangana. So you need a GSTIN there, whatever your turnover.
The two terms you will hear
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| PPOB, principal place of business | Your main registered address in that state. This is the address the GSTIN is issued against. |
| VPOB, virtual place of business | A commercial address you licence from a provider, used as your PPOB in a state where you have no office of your own. |
| APOB, additional place of business | Any other location where you do business in that state. For a marketplace seller this is the fulfilment centre where your stock is held. |
The pattern: a VPOB gets you the state GSTIN, then the warehouse is added as an APOB under that same number. Only then can the platform inward your stock in that state.
Why the turnover exemption does not save you
Two reasons. First, marketplaces collect tax at source, and anyone selling through them needs registration regardless of turnover. Second, storing goods in a state creates a taxable presence there on its own. The ₹40 lakh threshold is irrelevant to both.
What it costs
| Item | Typical |
|---|---|
| Virtual office in the state, monthly | ₹1,500 to ₹2,300 |
| Same, annually | ₹18,000 to ₹28,000 |
| GST registration itself | Free on the portal |
| Filing per state, monthly | ₹1,000 to ₹3,000 through a CA |
The address is the cheap part. The filings are the real cost: each state means its own returns, every month, forever. Five states is five sets of returns. Add that up before you expand into a state on a hunch.
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How it runs, start to finish
- Pick the state, driven by where the platform wants your stock, not by where you would like to be.
- Take a virtual office there on a plan that explicitly supports GST.
- Collect the agreement, the signed NOC and a utility bill less than two months old.
- File Form REG-01 for that state on gst.gov.in.
- Once the GSTIN is granted, add the fulfilment centre as an additional place of business by amending the registration.
- Give the platform the GSTIN, and only then send stock.
Expect three to four weeks end to end per state. Plan the sale season backwards from that, because a warehouse booking you cannot use is dead money.
Where sellers get stuck
Sending stock before the GSTIN. The platform will not inward it, and you pay storage on goods you cannot sell.
A provider who cannot handle verification. An officer may visit the virtual office. If nobody there knows your company, the application dies and you start again.
Forgetting the APOB. The GSTIN alone is not enough. The warehouse address has to be on the registration too.
Underestimating the filings. Nil returns still have to be filed. Miss them and the registration can be cancelled, which takes weeks to reverse.
Before you add a state
Ask one question: will the sales from that state cover roughly ₹40,000 a year of address and filing cost, plus the attention? For a seller doing real volume, easily. For someone testing a category, often not. Start with one state and add the next when the numbers say so.
Browse addresses: virtual offices across eleven cities. Rules and officer practice shift, so run your plan past your CA before you file.
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