All Telangana traders to get GST push

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government will do suo motu GST registration of traders, and impose penalty on those who fail to migrate from VAT to GST in the next three months.

Thousands of traders are yet to migrate to GST though the July 1 deadline is past.

The commercial taxes department is in the process of identifying traders who are eligible for GST but have not switched to the new tax regime.

Commercial taxes commissioner V. Anil Kumar said the GST rules provide for suo motu registration of traders who are liable but have failed to apply for registration.

The rules provide for physical verification of business premises after grant of registration.

The commercial taxes department had issued provisional IDs to 2.10 lakh VAT registered traders across the state and asked them to migrate to GST. Only 1.85 lakh have migrated to GST so far. There is still a backlog of 25,000. Another 40,000 new traders are expected to register for GST, who were not part of the earlier VAT regime.

“All these leftover traders have to switch to GST within three months. If not, the department will do suo motu GST registration and impose taxes on them for this period,” Mr Kumar said.

Awareness programmes on GST will be held in 60 centres across the state. The toll-free helpline 1800 425 3787 has been set up to enable traders to seek clarifications on GST and for consumers to lodge complaints. The helpline will work from 8 am to 10 pm on all working days.

The government hopes to check 'zero business' effectively after achieving 100 per cent GST registration as all transactions from manufacturer level to consumer level will be recorded online.