Businesses that did not enrol for the Goods and Services Tax in the first phase will get a second chance. The government will re-open the enrolment window from June 1 for another 15 days.

The issue was discussed at a review meeting by Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on the administrative and IT preparedness for GST.

The enrolment window was open between November 8 last year and April 30 this year. In this phase, 60.5 lakh taxpayers out of the total 84 lakh had enrolled for GST. The government plans to roll out GST from July 1 this year despite concerns by some States and industry that it may have to be a race to the finish.

Apart from the tax rates, many of the GST rules are yet to be finalised while most States have still not passed the State GST Bill.

Training officials

Till now of the 62,937 tax officials, only 24,668 have been given hands-on training on the application software on live system. “The remaining officials will be trained by June 15,” said a Finance Ministry statement.

Meanwhile, the GST Network, which is the IT backbone for the new levy is also conducting a pilot on the GST System Software from May 2 to May 16 to test the return filing.

“About 3,200 taxpayers drawn from each State, Union Territory and the Centre will be participating,” said the Finance Ministry, adding that all stakeholders involved in the GST system including taxpayers, banks, accounting authorities and the Reserve Bank of India are participating in it.

The review meeting was also attended by GSTN Chairman Navin Kumar; Chairperson Central Board of Excise and Customs Vanaja Sarna; as well as Infosys India Business Unit Head CN Raghupathi, apart from other Finance Ministry officials.

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