There are both negative and positive impacts on small businesses when it comes to GST. But when it is considered for the long term, GST has a positive effect. The GST payable is split into SGST, CGST and IGST, but only one single registration is required for all of them. GST registration also doesn’t need physical paperwork as most of the uploads can be managed online and digitally signed. 

The GST Council has set a limit of annual turnover of Rs. 40 lakhs for registration under GST and businesses with turnover below the threshold do not require GST registration. This limit is further reduced to Rs. 20 lakhs in case of North Eastern states. The council has also offered a scheme for where the businesses with a turnover of up to Rs. 1.0 crores per annum, can pay GST at a fixed rate of turnover. There are some exceptions to this scheme. One more advantage of GST is that it is a value-added tax and therefore is only imposed on the value addition.