There is significant growth noticed after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2017. New taxpayers have increased in number. The number of active GST taxpayers has climbed by 124% in six years, from 5.08 lakh on July 1, 2017, when the new regime went into effect, to 11.44 lakh at present, according to data from the state commercial tax department.
Business owners and tax experts attribute this success to increased economic formalisation as well as new investments.
A senior official of the state commercial tax department stated, “Hassle-free migration and registration processes and increasing formalisation of the economy are the prime reasons for the increase in the number of taxpayers, as more of them have been brought under the ambit of GST.”
Fake GST registrations and cancelled registrations are not included in this calculation. This updated count is of all the active and genuine taxpayers.
New investments have also attracted more new businesses being registered for GST.
Pathik Patwari, President of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce, and Industry (GCCI) stated, “Several fresh investments have taken place in several industrial clusters in Gujarat. For example, after the rollout of GST, the pharma sector saw an influx of new players moving to Gujarat or making greenfield investments here.”
He continued by saying that similarly there is also seen a significant increase in the apparel and ceramics industries. Since Covid, a huge push in the services industry with a remarkable number of IT businesses starting their operations in India has also been noticed.
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Apart from this, the industry-friendly policies of the government are also the reason behind the increased taxpayer base.
