The Post-October 2023 OIDAR Trap: Why Almost Every Digital Service Sold to India Is Now Taxable

Since 1 October 2023, India has taxed nearly all digital services that foreign businesses sell to Indian consumers. The Finance Act 2023 deleted the “minimal human intervention” test from the OIDAR definition and broadened the “non-taxable online recipient” (NTOR) to any unregistered person in India. The result: a foreign supplier selling B2C must register and charge 18% IGST from the first sale — no threshold. This is the single change foreign sellers most often miss.

The two changes that sprang the trap

For years, foreign digital businesses leaned on two arguments to stay outside India’s GST net. The Finance Act 2023 removed both, with effect from 1 October 2023.

1. The “minimal human intervention” test was deleted

The old OIDAR definition only caught services that were “essentially automated and involving minimal human intervention.” Foreign companies used this phrase as an escape hatch: a SaaS platform that needed some manual configuration, or an online course with live elements, was argued to involve enough human effort to fall outside OIDAR.

That phrase is now gone from the law. Today the test is functional and broad: if the service is delivered over the internet or an electronic network, it is almost certainly OIDAR — regardless of how much human involvement sits behind it.

2. “NTOR” was broadened to any unregistered buyer

The second escape hatch was the definition of a non-taxable online recipient. Pre-October 2023, an NTOR was an unregistered person receiving the service “for purposes other than commerce, industry or any other business or profession.” That “non-business use” qualifier was impossible for a foreign seller to verify — and it created room to argue a customer was out of scope.

The qualifier was removed. An NTOR is now simply any person in India who is not registered for GST. If your Indian customer cannot give you a valid 15-digit GSTIN, they are an NTOR — full stop.

Why this matters: forward charge, from the first rupee

Put the two changes together and the consequence is stark. When you sell a digital service to an Indian customer who has no GSTIN:

• the supply is OIDAR (the human-intervention escape is gone), and
• the customer is an NTOR (the non-business escape is gone),

so you, the foreign supplier, are liable to register for Indian GST and pay 18% IGST under forward charge — and there is no turnover threshold. The duty applies from your very first B2C sale.

This is the opposite of how many countries’ digital-tax regimes work, where a revenue threshold (often tens of thousands of dollars) gives small sellers breathing room. India gives none for B2C OIDAR.

The terminology trap: B2C is not reverse charge

The most damaging mistake we see is sellers (and even some advisors) describing the foreign supplier’s B2C duty as a “reverse charge.” It is not.

	B2C — sale to an NTOR	B2B — sale to a GST-registered business
Mechanism	Forward charge	Reverse charge
Who pays the 18% IGST	The foreign supplier collects + remits	The Indian buyer self-pays
Foreign supplier must register?	Yes	No

If you act on the stale “reverse charge” framing and assume your Indian consumers will handle the tax, you will under-collect — and the liability, interest, and penalties land on you.

Who gets caught (and who doesn’t)

Caught — must register and charge 18% IGST on B2C sales to India:

• SaaS and subscription software sold to Indian individuals or unregistered businesses
• Apps, in-app purchases, and game subscriptions
• Online courses and e-learning — including those with live Q&A
• Streaming, e-books, digital downloads, paywalled content
• Cloud hosting and storage sold to unregistered customers

Not caught by forward charge:

• Sales only to GST-registered Indian businesses that provide a valid GSTIN — these are B2B, and the Indian buyer pays under reverse charge.

What to do about it

1. Collect GSTINs at checkout. Ask Indian customers for a GSTIN. A valid one = B2B (don’t charge IGST). No GSTIN = NTOR (charge 18%).
2. Register if you have any B2C India sales. Use the simplified Form REG-10 — no Indian PAN, no subsidiary, single all-India registration.
3. File monthly. GSTR-5A is due the 20th of the following month; nil returns are mandatory; no input tax credit.
4. Ignore the Equalisation Levy. It was fully abolished (2% e-commerce on 1 Aug 2024; 6% ads on 1 Apr 2025) — it is not a separate thing to file.

For the full mechanics — registration, returns, the separate income-tax (SEP) question, and treaty relief — see the pillar guide: GST for Foreign Businesses Selling to India (OIDAR).

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General information as of June 2026, not tax advice for your specific facts. BatchWise coordinates OIDAR registration and monthly GSTR-5A filing for foreign sellers.