80,000 dealers yet to be GST-ready

Hyderabad: Although the State government wanted dealers paying VAT (value added tax) to migrate to the Goods and Services Tax regime by January 15, nearly 80,000 dealers are yet to fall in line.

Officials of the Commercial Taxes Department said that it would be better for dealers paying VAT to join the GST Network through the current online process and thus avoid the troubles of last-minute rush.

Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes M Chandrasekhara Reddy told The Hans India that a dedicated team of officers had been working in the department to help dealers paying VAT to migrate to GST.

This team had been clearing the doubts of the dealers with regard to registering with the GST Network portal of the Centre for migrating to GST. Migrating to GST was mandatory.

Hence, dealers liable to pay GST should make use of the facilities being provided by the Commercial Taxes Department. The team currently helping dealers would be withdrawn soon.

In all, 1.50 lakh out of 2.30 lakh dealers had migrated successfully and they had received the IDs to log into the GST Network portal.

Reddy said that the Centre had given Telangana the time slot from January 1 to 15 for migration of dealers paying VAT to GST. While some dealers were still reluctant, some could not migrate as they did not have PAN numbers.

The Centre was firm on implementing the Goods and Services Tax in the country from this year, though the start date was yet to be confirmed.

Although the Centre wanted to implement GST from April 1, the process may have to be postponed by three months. Dealers paying VAT are skeptical about the date of implementation and waiting for confirmation from the Centre.

According to rules, businessmen who have annual turnover of Rs 20 lakh would come under the GST net. Under VAT system, businessmen who having turnover of Rs 10 lakh and above per annum were supposed to pay VAT.

A business consultant said that with GST small businessmen having turnover of less than Rs 20 lakh would get exemption from paying the tax.

The officials of the Commercial Taxes Department said that as the PAN number would be added to the account of the businessmen, they could not cheat the government in paying income tax.

Dealers have been advised to get themselves registered at the earliest and obtain user ID to log into the network. After obtaining the user ID, they should also upload the requisite documents to the website for completing the registration process.