Gujarat commences GST enrolment drive

The Gujarat government today announced the commencement of GST enrolment drive, under which existing tax payers registered under various state and central tax regimes, such as VAT, need to apply online to get the Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN) number.
As the system is completely online, there is no need to approach any official of commercial tax, Commissioner of Commercial Tax P D Vaghela told reporters.
According to Vaghela, this process is a free and one time migration from existing tax structure to GST. Those who are currently registered under Central Excise, Service Tax, Entertainment Tax, VAT, Luxury Tax and Entertainment Tax need to enroll themselves for GST number.

"As many as 4.88 lakh traders are currently registered under VAT, which covers almost 70 per cent traders who are also registered under Excise or any other tax regime. Out of them, we will first migrate 4.66 lakh traders to GST, as they have registered themselves with us before August," said Vaghela.
To migrate from present tax regime to GST, registered members need to log in to the portal
'www.Commercialtax.Gujarat.Gov.In' to fill up required fields and get a provisional login ID and a password.

The enrolment drive will conclude on November 30.
"After following some other steps, which will take only 15 minutes, a 15-digit GSTN number will be generated. With this, all other previous registration will become null and void and only this registration will come into effect. This number will be then considered as GST number after April 1," said Vaghela.

On the occasion, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the state government will no longer be able to give incentives to the industry under the GST regime.
"After GST comes into effect, state government cannot give various industry incentives. If we want, then the government has to make a separate provision in the state budget," said Patel, adding it is still contemplating about what to do with those incentives which are already given to the industry in the past, such as for Tata Nano plant.
The Centre is targeting to roll out GST by April 1 next year and has recently introduced the 4-tier-structure.