80Lakh Assessees May Start Migrating To GSTN Portal From November 8

New Delhi: As many as 80 lakh assessees of excise as well as service tax and VAT can start migrating their registration to the Goods and Service Tax Network portal by November 8, according to GSTN Chief Executive Prakash Kumar. "On this date (November 8), we are releasing enrolments. This means getting these existing eight million assessees on to our system," Kumar was quoted as saying by a PHDCCI release.

The GSTN, which is expected to provide common and shared IT infrastructure for GST implementation, will transfer on-board to its platform the details of about 80 lakh existing assessees of excise, value-added tax, customs and service tax. Kumar said the migration of assessee details onto the GSTN platform will sort out inconsistencies and help industry get ready for GST implementation date of April 1, 2017.

This move will help them do business without any hassle from April 1 next year, which is the likely GST implementation date, Kumar said. GSTN, a not-for-profit entity incorporated in March 2013, has been set up primarily to provide IT infrastructure and services to the central and state governments, taxpayers and other stakeholders for implementation of GST. It has also been allowed to partner with other agencies for creating an efficient and user-friendly GST eco-system.

Kumar also said that GSTN will in the coming days obtain imports related data (Bill of Entry) from the Central Board of Excise Customs (CBEC). This will be useful for levy of iGST (GST levy on imports).

The GST will subsume excise, service tax and other local levies and will make India one market for seamless transfer of goods and services. The GST Council, consisting of Union Finance Minister and his state counterparts, is likely to decide on the tax rates in their November 3-4 meeting.

Source: PTI