The audit under section 35(5) of the CGST Act to be conducted by CA or CWA is applicable only to a registered person. A non-filer is still a registered person under section 25 of the CGST Act. Hence, he may be required to get the audit conducted under section 35(5) of the said Act. Also as per Instruction No. 2 appended to FORM GSTR-9C, it is mandatory to file all FORM GSTR-1, FORM GSTR-3B and FORM GSTR-9 for the financial year 2017-18 before filing thisreturn.
However, unregistered person who is liable to take registration under section 25 of the CGST Act is a taxable person. But the said unregistered person is not a registered person as defined under section 2(94) of the CGST Act, 2017. Hence in terms of section 35(5) of the Act, an un registered person who is liable to take registration is not required to get his accounts audited.