Existing taxpayers can enrol and submit their details to ensure seamless tax payment, returns and refunds on the website, to be opened in November

New Delhi: Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the company tasked with setting up the information technology backbone for the ambitious indirect tax reform, will open a website for the registration of taxpayers such as traders, manufactures and service providers in November.

Taxpayers will be able to access the website and submit the necessary information for registering with the tax network to ensure seamless tax payment, returns and refunds under GST.

“Beginning November, we will be opening a portal for existing taxpayers. Login IDs and passwords will be given to the taxpayers. They can log in and fill in details like their place of business and other such information,” said Navin Kumar, chairman of GSTN. “Even new taxpayers will be able to enrol at a later date through this portal.”

With the GST council finalizing the threshold levels for GST’s applicability as well as the contours of the compounding scheme, taxpayers now have more clarity on the operational aspects of this tax reform, which is expected to be implemented from 1 April 2017.

“Industry needs time to prepare its information technology systems for a transition to GST. The faster the draft laws and rules are finalized, the easier it will be for the industry to make the transition to GST smoothly,” said Vipul Jhaveri, managing partner, tax and regulatory, at Deloitte Haskins and Sells Llp.

Last month, the GST council finalized the revenue threshold levels below which traders will be exempted from levy of GST.

It was decided that all assessees with annual revenue below Rs20 lakh will be exempted from GST. The threshold is Rs10 lakh for 11 special category states—the north-eastern and the hill states.

Further, the council also finalized the revenue levels for a taxpayer to opt for the compounding scheme. Small traders with revenues of Rs20-50 lakh can pay a flat tax and do away with unnecessary paperwork.

GST is expected to remove barriers across states and integrate the country into a common market. It will subsume most of the indirect taxes levied by the centre and the states, including excise duty, service tax, value added tax, entertainment tax and luxury tax. It will put the entire tax process online—right from registration, tax payment and tax return filing to refunds, audits and assessments.

GSTN has already launched a developer portal for IT firms that want to develop GST-based applications for various kinds services like preparing taxpayers for tax payment and filing of returns.