Over 1.03 Crore Businesses Have Registered Under Goods and Services Tax Regime

New Delhi, March 9: Over 1.03 crore businesses have registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime and the implementation of the biggest indirect tax reform has been smooth so far, Parliament was informed today. As on March 2, a total of 1,03,99,305 taxpayers are registered under GST, which include 64.42 lakh taxpayers who have migrated from the erstwhile tax regimes and 39.56 lakh who have taken new registration under GST, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said.

"As a result of the sustained efforts made by the government to make GST trade friendly, the implementation of GST in the country has been smooth so far," Shukla said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. GST was rolled out from July 1, 2017, and based on the feedback received from stakeholders the GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts, has made a host of changes in GST norms and procedures. GST has subsumed over a dozen local taxes, including excise duty, service tax and VAT. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has set up a national call centre to reply to queries which are functional round the clock, Shukla said.

"The taxpayer can raise a query via toll-free phone number 18001200232 or by sending an email to cbecmitra.helpdesk@icegate.gov.in," he said. In addition, GST Network has set up a help desk with phone number 0120-4888999 to answer software related queries. Shukla said the revenue collections from Central GST, State GST, Integrated GST and compensation cess was Rs 93,590 crore for July, Rs 93,029 crore for August, Rs 95,132 crore for September and Rs 85,931 crore for October. The mop up for November stood at Rs 83,716 crore, December (Rs 88,929 crore) and January (Rs 88,047 crore).