Buying imported stationery wholesale: GST bills, delivery and minimums explained

Buying wholesale for the first time involves words that nobody explains: GSTIN, input credit, ex-warehouse, transporter, LR. This guide explains each in plain terms, using how Tirth Enterprise works as the example. It is not tax advice. For anything about your own tax position, ask a CA.

Do you need a GST number to buy wholesale?

Not from us. A shop or seller without a GSTIN can register and buy at the same wholesale rate as everyone else. The only difference is on the tax side: you cannot claim input credit for the GST you pay.

If you have a GSTIN, give it when you register and it goes on every invoice.

Whether you need to register for GST yourself is a separate question. It depends on things like your turnover and how you sell, and the rules change from time to time. The official GST portal explains who must register, and a CA can tell you what applies to your shop.

What input credit means

When you buy stock, the invoice adds GST on top of the price. When a GST-registered business sells, it charges GST to its own customers. Input credit lets a registered business set the GST it paid on purchases against the GST it collects on sales, so it pays the government only the difference.

A simple illustration, with made-up numbers:

• You buy stock, and the invoice shows ₹500 of GST (example).
• You later sell that stock and collect ₹800 of GST from your buyers (example).
• With a GSTIN and input credit, you pay the government ₹300, the difference.
• Without a GSTIN, the ₹500 you paid stays part of your stock cost, and you are not collecting GST on sales.

So for a seller without a GSTIN, GST is part of what each piece costs. Put it into your landed cost when you set prices. For a registered seller, the GST on purchases may come back as credit. How it works for you depends on your registration and filings, which is a question for a CA.

What our invoice shows

We are a registered importer and wholesaler with GSTIN 24BILPM3469B1ZB, and we invoice from Rajkot, Gujarat. Our rates are exclusive of GST, so the invoice shows the rate and the GST separately. Because the invoice comes from Gujarat, a buyer in another state will see IGST on the bill, and a buyer within Gujarat will see CGST and SGST.

What ex-warehouse means

Our rates are ex-warehouse Rajkot. That means the price covers the goods at our warehouse, and freight to your city is separate. Before you pay, we confirm the freight for your city, so you know the full amount: goods, GST and freight.

How delivery works

We send orders through a transporter, a goods carrier that runs routes between cities. The goods go on your transporter, and you receive the LR receipt.

LR stands for lorry receipt. It is the transporter's document for your consignment, with a number you use to track it and to collect it. Keep it until the goods are in your hands.

A few practical points, which apply to transporters generally:

• Transporters deliver to a godown or office in your city, and some deliver to the door. Ask which applies to your area.
• Find out where the transporter's office in your city is before the goods arrive, so collection is quick.
• When you collect, check the number of cartons against the LR and look for damage before you sign. If something is wrong, note it on the delivery paper and photograph it.
• Delivery time depends on the distance and the route, so ask the transporter for your city.

If you are close to Rajkot, you can also collect from our warehouse yourself.

We ship all over India. Our current buyers are spread from Kerala and Karnataka to Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura and Sikkim.

What minimum orders and cases mean

Two rules shape every order.

We sell by the case. A case holds one design, and cases in our current range hold 12 to 60 pieces; the case size is printed on every product page. We do not break cases, and we do not sell single pieces or samples. You can mix as many designs as you like in one order.

There is a minimum order. A shop's first order can be from ₹2,500, and later orders are from ₹5,000. The lower first minimum lets a new shop try the range before committing more.

Why cases and minimums? Every order has to be counted, packed, invoiced and booked with a transporter, and freight on a very small consignment can cost more than the goods inside it. Every approved buyer gets the same rate; there are no negotiated tiers.

Working out what you will really pay

Here is the full cost of an order with example figures. Replace each one with your own.

• Order total at our rates: ₹2,600 (example)
• GST on the invoice: ₹470 (example; the real figure is on your invoice)
• Freight to your city: ₹300 (example; we confirm the real figure before you pay)
• Total: ₹3,370

To find the landed cost of one piece, take the case's share of that total and divide by the pieces in the case. If the order holds 200 pieces, the average is ₹3,370 ÷ 200 = about ₹16.85 a piece, but cheap erasers and costlier highlighter sets will sit either side of it, so work out each design on its own.

Keep your paperwork

File every invoice and every LR receipt, on paper or as photos in one folder. If you have a GSTIN, your purchase invoices are what your input credit rests on, so check that your GSTIN and business name are printed correctly on each one and tell the supplier straight away if not. If you do not have a GSTIN, the invoices are still your record of what stock cost, and you will want them when you work out prices or if you register later.

Registering

To register you need your shop or business name, city and pincode, and one proof that you sell: a photo of a visiting card, a link to your shop's Instagram or Facebook page, or a photo of your shop board. An online seller with no physical shop can use the page link. Approval is usually within a day, and you see prices once approved.

Every carton we receive is opened, counted and photographed, and the photo on each product page is the piece you will receive. Everything listed is physically in our Rajkot warehouse.

The step-by-step version of all this is on how it works. For the range itself, see imported stationery, and when you are ready, register here. If you are planning what to put in that first order, read your first ₹2,500 order.