Since the GST was rolled out seven years (7) ago, there has been a sizeable 134% rise in the number of new taxpayers. State commercial tax department data shows that active taxpayers have grown in numbers from 5.08 lakh on 01.07.2017, when the regime came into effect to Rs. 11.95 lakh currently.
Industry experts and tax professionals attribute the increase to greater formalization of the economy and fresh investments.
“A clear reason is improved business growth which contributes to a rise in the number of GSTINs issued year after year. However, the new tax regime is taxpayer-friendly due to which new registrations were granted more liberally,” said a source in the SGST department. Interestingly, there was only a 0.5% increase in registrations in FY 2024 over the 11.90 lakh registrations during FY 2023.
“To curb the growing menace of bogus billing scams for tax evasion, the process for obtaining new registrations underwent a paradigm shift with mandatory biometric verification. This led to a marked decline in fresh GSTIN applications. The new system was implemented in October 2023 and the change became evident the next month onwards,” senior SGST official requesting anonymity, told TOI.
With the biometric authentication system keeping bogus applicants out, fresh registrations dropped by around 25% between November 2023 and May 2024.
Applications declined by over 55% n November 2023-24 compared to November 2022-23 numbers.
The active taxpayer count does not include fraudulent registrations and is computed after deducting cancelled registrations.
Industry sources also told TOI that fresh investments in semiconductors and other sectors also led to a rise in fresh GSTIN applications. Expansion by industries is yet another reason for the spike.
Source: The Times of India
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