Indirect tax base grew 50% since the GST roll-out, says Economic Survey

Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have the largest number of GST registrants

Bolstered by sharp growth in the tax base, goods and services tax (GST) revenue mop-up has been ‘surprisingly robust’ despite ‘teething difficulties’, said the Economic Survey 2017-18.

The indirect tax base grew 50 per cent since the GST roll-out, led by a large increase in registrations, especially by small enterprises. The demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November 2016 resulted in widening of taxpayers’ base, the Survey said. 

As of December 2017, there were 9.8 million unique GST registrants, slightly more than indirect tax registrants under the earlier system. Although not comparable, GST has increased the number of unique indirect taxpayers by