The finance ministry has clarified that person failing to obtain goods and service tax (GST) registration before Jul 31, 2017, will face penal action. Accordingly, distributors earning over Rs. 20 lakh a year will now have to take GST registration by Jul 30, 2017, to avoid penal action. However, the limit is Rs. 10 lakh in case of distributors from special states comprising of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.