CGST Rule 24 — Migration of persons registered under the existing law
Official sources
Use the official source for the controlling wording, footnotes, effective date and amendment history.
Source review date: 2026-07-28. Historical-period questions require the version applicable to the transaction date.
Finin2min Summary - Rule in 2 Minutes
Covers the (now largely historical) migration of persons registered under the pre-GST law (VAT/Service Tax/Excise) into the GST regime via a provisional and then final registration.
official statutory reference
Paragraph-wise decode
A person registered under an existing law and granted a provisional registration in FORM GST REG-25 was required to submit an application for enrolment in FORM GST REG-26 with prescribed information within the specified period; failure or ineligibility could lead to cancellation of the provisional registration under FORM GST REG-27/28, or the person could apply to cancel their own migrated registration in FORM GST REG-29 if not liable to register under GST.
Section-Rule-Form-Notification bridge
The mapping is a legal concordance, not a round-robin related-link list. It is limited to instruments listed in this repository.
Practical example
A trader registered under the pre-GST VAT law who received a provisional GSTIN in July 2017 completed FORM GST REG-26 with full business details to convert it into a regular registration.
Professional alert
Do not assume every later amendment has the same effective date; each amending notification must be checked separately.
Implementation checklist
- Fix the transaction, taxable period and jurisdiction.
- Read every subsection, proviso, explanation and omission marker.
- Open the mapped Rule, form, notification and circular.
- Test State/UT variation and portal version.
- Preserve evidence, approvals, working papers and acknowledgements.
- Record the conclusion, assumptions, source date and reviewer.
Evidence and retention checklist
- Contract, purchase order, invoice or underlying transaction document.
- Registration, return, ledger, challan and portal acknowledgement.
- Official Act/Rule/notification version used and effective date.
- Internal tax position paper, computation and management approval.
- Correspondence, notices, replies, orders and appeal papers where applicable.
Practical Q&A
- What does rule 24 regulate?
- It regulates rule 24 - Migration of persons registered under the existing law. Read the exact text, conditions, exceptions and transaction date together.
- Which subordinate law should be checked?
- No direct CGST Rule has been listed in this repository. Notifications, circulars, forms and the corresponding SGST/UTGST layer may also apply.
- What evidence should be retained?
- Preserve the contract or transaction record, invoice or form, portal acknowledgement, payment/ledger evidence, correspondence, legal working and the official source version used.
- Can portal behaviour override the statute?
- No. Portal functionality is operational evidence; legal entitlement and liability remain controlled by the Act, Rules, notifications and binding decisions.
Repository module professional rule control
Why Rule 24 matters
Migration of persons registered under the existing law should be read with its enabling CGST Act provision, prescribed forms, amendment notification, transaction date and the live portal workflow. The operative-text block already released on this page remains the legal core; Repository module adds application controls without altering that block.
Rule → Form → evidence bridge
- Confirm the Rule version that was operative on the relevant date.
- Check every proviso, explanation, inserted/omitted sub-rule and commencement notification.
- Use the current prescribed form/portal utility rather than a saved legacy template.
- Preserve the Rule source, filing/approval evidence, computation and decision-maker trail.
Finin2min decision path
- Trigger: What transaction, registration event, return, credit, valuation, refund, appeal or enforcement event activates this Rule?
- Date: Which Rule version and amendment notification applied on that date?
- Conditions: Have every mandatory condition and exception been tested?
- Form/portal: Is the prescribed form or electronic workflow the correct current version?
- Evidence: Can the conclusion be reconstructed from books, invoices, portal records and official sources?
Practical cases
New registration
Identify the correct registration route, authentication requirement, supporting evidence and system/officer action.
Change or cancellation
Check whether the trigger is taxpayer-initiated, system-driven or officer-initiated and use the correct REG form sequence.
Evidence failure
A portal acceptance does not cure false premises, identity, bank or constitutional-document evidence.
Accounting, ERP and portal controls
- Do not let an ERP default or portal auto-population override the legal Rule.
- Map the Rule trigger to the correct tax period and retain before/after reconciliation where values change.
- Archive ARN, acknowledgements, generated PDFs, payment/ledger records, notices and orders where applicable.
Notice and litigation risk
- Separate a portal mismatch from a statutory breach; they are not automatically the same issue.
- Identify whether a circular/instruction is clarificatory or whether an amendment changed the Rule itself.
- Apply judicial hierarchy: Supreme Court → jurisdictional High Court → other High Courts → GSTAT; AAR/AAAR is not universal precedent.
Common mistakes
- Using today's Rule for an older transaction without an effective-date test.
- Reading a form instruction as if it overrides the Act or Rule.
- Ignoring State/UT procedural overlays where the Rule requires a local notification or officer action.
- Treating a source-gated local reproduction as cleared statutory text.
Finin2min Q&A
- What does CGST Rule 24 deal with?
- Migration of persons registered under the existing law. Start with the operative Rule version and then test the connected Act provision, forms and amendments.
- Which GST form is connected to Rule 24?
- REG-25, REG-26, REG-27, REG-28, REG-29 The Rule and live portal workflow control.
- Can I rely only on the GST portal?
- No. Portal functionality is execution infrastructure; legal eligibility and consequences come from the Act, Rules and valid instruments.
- What should I keep on file?
- The official Rule version used, amendment/effective-date evidence, underlying transaction records, computation, portal submission and resulting acknowledgement/order.