GST, Customs and Trade for Foreign Companies in India

GST is the tax charged on almost every sale of goods and services inside India, and customs duty is charged separately on goods brought across the border; together with the export rules and the paperwork behind them, this is the layer of compliance a foreign company meets the moment it starts trading, not only when it incorporates. A subsidiary that has done everything right on the company-law side can still be held up at customs, or penalised for a missed return, because GST and trade rules run on their own registrations and their own calendar.

For a foreign parent, the practical split is this: GST covers what your Indian entity sells and buys domestically, reverse charge covers what it pays its own overseas affiliate for services, and a separate Import Export Code covers anything it physically imports or exports. NRIs running an import or export business, or selling consulting or agency services into India, hit the same registrations, usually without a large finance team behind them to catch an error early.

Once trading starts, these obligations run whether or not anyone is watching them. A late GST return accrues a late fee for every day it stays unfiled, and a shipment held at customs for the wrong paperwork or a missing product certificate usually costs more in delay than the duty itself. This hub orients you across GST registration and returns, the customs and export rules at the border, and the trade schemes and certifications that sit alongside them, then points you to the pages that go deeper on each.

Start here

Everything About GST for Foreign Companies: 40 Questions
One FAQ covering registration, OIDAR, reverse charge, input credit and filing, the questions foreign companies ask most.
IGST vs CGST vs SGST — India's GST Structure Explained
Explains the split between interstate and intrastate GST before you register, since it decides which tax head applies.
GST Registration
The core definition: who must register for GST, and what the registration actually commits you to.
Import Export Code (IEC) Registration in India
Covers the DGFT registration you need separately from GST the moment your company imports or exports anything physical.
GST Registration By Country
An index of country-specific GST registration notes, if you want the version written for founders from your home country.
Custom Duty & Anti-Dumping Duty (Customs Act, 1962)
Defines how customs duty, IGST and cess stack on an import, and where anti-dumping duty adds another layer.
DGFT Portal: IEC Registration, License Application & Export Benefits
Walks through the DGFT portal itself: applying for an IEC, and the export schemes that follow once you hold one.

Beacon Filing runs the monthly returns, reverse charge computation and input credit reconciliation through our monthly GST filing support, with a filing calendar your finance team can see. GST is only one part of staying in good standing: the board meetings, statutory audit coordination and ROC filings that run on a separate calendar sit in our annual compliance service.

GST registration

Selling anything in India, even through a branch or a single project, usually means registering for GST before you can invoice legally. The turnover threshold that lets small domestic businesses wait does not help a foreign business with no fixed place here: it registers from its first taxable supply, unless the Indian buyer pays the GST under reverse charge.

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GST returns and filing

Once registered, GST usually runs on a monthly filing cycle that reconciles what you have billed against what your suppliers report, on top of a separate annual return. Filing late, or skipping the annual return once it falls due, is a common way foreign-owned entities pick up penalties a simple compliance calendar would have avoided.

e-invoicing and e-way bill

Two digital layers sit on top of ordinary GST filing: e-invoicing, which requires certain suppliers to register each invoice on a government portal before it counts for input credit, and the e-way bill, needed whenever goods above a set value move between locations. Both apply from a threshold, which is where larger foreign-owned manufacturers get caught out.

input tax credit

Input tax credit stops GST from stacking at every stage of a supply chain: you offset GST paid on purchases against GST collected on sales. For any business, foreign-owned or not, the credit only counts once it appears correctly on your supplier's own return, so a supplier's late or wrong filing directly delays your credit or raises your cash outlay.

place of supply and exports

Place-of-supply rules decide which state's GST applies to a domestic sale, and whether a cross-border sale counts as an export at all. A service billed to an overseas client is not automatically a zero-rated export. Intermediary and agency services show how this moves: their special place-of-supply rule was omitted on 30 March 2026.

customs duty and valuation

Importing anything into India triggers customs duty calculated on the value of the goods plus freight and insurance, under a tariff classification that decides the applicable rate. A wrong tariff heading is an expensive mistake because it repeats: the department can reopen earlier shipments filed under the same code, within the time limits the law allows.

import export code

An Import Export Code from DGFT is the separate registration that lets a company clear goods through customs and receive trade-related foreign exchange; it exists independently of GST registration, and neither one substitutes for the other. A foreign-owned entity that expects to import equipment, samples or inventory usually applies for it soon after incorporation, before the first shipment.

FTAs and rules of origin

India has signed a growing list of trade agreements that reduce or remove customs duty on qualifying goods, but the benefit only applies if the product meets that agreement's own rules of origin and the paperwork proves it. Assuming a preferential rate applies just because a product is made in a partner country is a common error.

SEZ and FTWZ

Special Economic Zones and Free Trade Warehousing Zones let a company import, store, manufacture or re-export without customs duty applying until goods leave the zone into the rest of India. The zones carry their own approvals and compliance calendar, and favourable tax treatment does not automatically extend to every activity carried out on the premises.

trade schemes and incentives

Beyond FTAs, a separate set of export-promotion schemes refunds or exempts duties on inputs used in exported goods, from duty drawback to bonded manufacturing to remission schemes. Each has its own eligibility conditions, and claiming under the wrong scheme, or missing the window to claim at all, is how exporters lose a benefit they were entitled to.

product standards and QCO

Certain goods sold in India, electronics, steel and toys among them, need a mandatory BIS certification or registration, often under a Quality Control Order, before they can be imported or sold. This sits outside GST and customs entirely: it is a product-safety approval, and missing it holds the shipment at the border regardless of your tax filings.

reverse charge and OIDAR

Reverse charge shifts responsibility for paying GST from seller to buyer, and applies by default to most services an Indian business receives from abroad, including from its own foreign parent or affiliate. A separate OIDAR regime covers foreign providers of online services, SaaS among them, sold to Indian customers who are not GST-registered, and changes who registers and who pays.

trade finance and documents

Every shipment runs on a paper trail: a bill of entry or shipping bill lodged through the customs ICEGATE portal, alongside the commercial invoice, packing list and any licence the goods require. Software and IT-enabled exporters carry an extra document layer of their own, and the rules governing it are under active revision, so check the current requirement first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a foreign company have to register for GST in India before it has any local revenue?

Usually yes. The turnover threshold that lets small domestic businesses wait does not apply to a business with no fixed place of business in India: making a taxable supply here classifies it as a Non-Resident Taxable Person, which must register before that first supply, regardless of turnover. The exception is a supply on which the Indian buyer pays GST under reverse charge, which covers most services sold to Indian businesses.

Is a flat landing charge still added to the invoice price when customs works out the value of an import?

No. That flat addition was removed by a 2017 amendment to the valuation rules; customs now adds the actual freight and insurance cost incurred, with a fallback percentage of the goods' value used only when the actual cost cannot be ascertained.

If our company already has GST registration, do we still need a separate Import Export Code to trade goods?

Yes. The IEC is a DGFT registration under the Foreign Trade Policy, separate from GST registration; without it, customs will not clear a commercial import or export shipment and banks will not process the related foreign exchange, however current your GST filings are.

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