1.1         The provisions relating to registration are contained in section 69 of the Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994 and rule 4 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994. The salient features are as under.

1.2        Every person providing a taxable service and liable to pay service tax is required to take registration with the Central Excise & Service Tax department.  Further, in certain cases liability to pay service tax has been shifted to service receiver or other specified persons, in terms of section 69 (2) of the Act. These cases are 

(i) insurer in case of service provided by insurance agent;                               

 (ii) person making payment of freight in such cases where goods transport agency provides taxable service to specified consignor and consignee 

(iii) Asset management company in case of service provided by a distributor to a mutual fund; 

(iv) where the service is provided to a person in India by any person from a country other than India; 

(v)  body corporate or a firm located in India receiving sponsorship service. In all these cases, the person liable to pay service tax will seek service tax registration.

1.3     The turnover limit for threshold based exemption is, currently Rs 8 lakh in a year. However, person availing this exemption is required to seek registration on achieving a turnover of Rs 7 lakh in a financial year in respect of all taxable services provided by him.  

1.4         Further, input service distributor, which is an office of a manufacturer of excisable goods or taxable service provider for distribution of credit on input services, is also required to take separate service tax registration.

1.5     Application for registration is required to be made in Form ST-1 to the Superintendent of Central Excise/Service tax within 30 days of levy of service tax coming into effect on such taxable service, or in case the business is commenced after the levy coming into effect, the application for registration is required to be made within 30 days of commencement of business of providing a taxable service. A person providing more than one taxable service is required to take single registration. He should indicate all taxable services provided by him in Form ST_1.

1.6        Any person liable to pay service tax, who provides taxable service from more than one premises, can apply for centralized registration in respect of premise/ premises, where his centralized billing system or centralized accounting system in respect of taxable services provided by him, is /are located. Similarly, any other person, other than service provider, who is liable to pay service tax,-

(a)    if receives taxable services in more than one premises; or

(b)  if has more than one premises engaged in relation to such taxable service,

can also seek centralised registration, provided he maintains centralised accounting in respect of such taxable services. In case service taxpayer opts for

centralised registration, the office or premises from where centralised billing is done or centralised accounting is maintained, will be required to be registered. Centralised registration is granted by the Commissioner of Central Excise/Service Tax having jurisdiction over such premises.

1.7        The registration certificate is granted by department, in Form ST-2, within seven days of filing of complete application for registration. In case registration certificate is not issued within seven days, the registration deems to have been granted. Registration No., also known as Service Tax Code (STC) is a fifteen digit PAN based number. First 10 digits of this number are same as the PAN of such person. Next two digits are ‘ST’. Next three digits are S. No. indicating the number of registrations taken by the service taxpayer against a common PAN. In addition to PAN, another number, namely, premises code is also issued vide S. No. 5 of Form ST-2. This number indicates the code of concerned Commissionerate, division, range and S. No. in the range. This number is issued for easy identification of location of registration of service taxpayer.