Under India's GST law, every place from which a registered business supplies or stores goods must appear on its registration certificate. The first one is the principal place of business (PPOB); any others are additional places of business (APOB). When you hold inventory at a Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart, Amazon or Flipkart warehouse in a state, that warehouse is legally a place where your business stores goods, so its address must be added as an APOB under your GSTIN for that state. Quick commerce platforms will not raise a purchase order or accept inwarding at a site until the APOB for that site is approved, which makes it one of the slowest and most common blockers in onboarding.
How it works
APOB is state-specific because GSTINs are state-specific. If your company is registered in Karnataka and Blinkit wants to stock you at its Gurugram mother warehouse, you need a Haryana GSTIN first, then add the warehouse as an APOB on that GSTIN. The steps are:
- Obtain from the platform a no-objection certificate (NOC) or consent letter for the warehouse address, plus the address proof (usually a utility bill or lease extract) they provide for this purpose.
- Log in to the GST portal, go to Services, Registration, Amendment of Registration Core Fields, and add the address under Additional Places of Business with "warehouse/godown" as the nature of possession.
- Upload the NOC and address proof, sign with DSC or EVC and submit.
- The jurisdictional officer approves, usually within a few working days but sometimes weeks; the amended certificate (REG-06) then lists the new address.
There is no government fee for the amendment. Costs arise only if you use a consultant, if you need a fresh state GSTIN, or from the compliance that follows: a separate GSTIN means separate GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B filings, and stock transfers from your home state to the platform warehouse become taxable inter-state supplies invoiced to your own GSTIN.
Why it matters for sellers
A platform cannot legally hold your stock at an address that is not on your GST certificate, and it will not risk an input tax credit dispute to do so. Brands that begin APOB only after commercial terms are signed routinely lose four to six weeks of selling time. Each new city or region the platform opens for you may require a new APOB, so the paperwork never fully ends.
How to manage it
- Start APOB the day the platform confirms which warehouses will stock you; do not wait for the first PO.
- Keep a list of every warehouse address by state, its GSTIN and the date it was added; platforms move warehouses and old APOBs need removing.
- Use the NOC and address proof format the platform supplies; officers reject generic documents.
- Decide early whether a state warrants its own GSTIN; a single-state APOB is enough if the warehouse is in your home state.
- Reconcile stock transfer invoices to each APOB monthly so GSTR-1 and the platform's inventory match.
Blooprint's quick commerce service manages APOB filings alongside onboarding. Read how to sell on Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart for where APOB sits in the full sequence.