In business, the word turnover usually means the total sales or revenue made during a financial year.
But under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, the concept is more specific, detailed, and tied to compliance.

The Aggregate Turnover is not just a number—it is a decisive factor for:

• Whether you must register under GST
• Whether you qualify for the Composition Scheme
• Eligibility for e-invoicing, QRMP scheme, and certain return filing requirements

If you miscalculate this figure, you might:

• Get wrongly registered or miss required registration
• Lose eligibility for beneficial schemes
• Invite penalties for non-compliance

The term is defined under Section 2(6) of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017:

“Aggregate turnover” means the aggregate value of all taxable supplies (excluding the value of inward supplies on which tax is payable by a person on reverse charge basis), exempt supplies, exports of goods or services or both, and inter-State supplies of persons having the same Permanent Account Number, to be computed on an all-India basis but excludes central tax, State tax, Union territory tax, integrated tax and cess.”

Breaking Down the Definition

Let’s break this into understandable parts:

1 All Taxable Supplies

• Taxable supplies mean goods or services on which GST is chargeable.
• Includes both intra-state (within a state) and inter-state (between states) supplies.
• The value considered is before GST, i.e., GST amount itself is not included.

Example:
If you sell goods worth ₹10,00,000 in Maharashtra and charge ₹1,80,000 GST,for aggregate turnover purposes, only ₹10,00,000 is counted.

2 Exempt Supplies

• Even if you sell goods or services exempted from GST (like certain food grains, healthcare, education services), their value must be included in aggregate turnover.
• Exempt supplies include:

Nil-rated supplies (GST rate 0%)