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Informist, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The next priority for the government is to bring about goods and services tax reforms that will help the industry in terms of ease of doing business, while also promoting a trust-based tax regime, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Member Sanjay Mangal said on Friday. The government is working on a host of process-simplification reforms for businesses, including a standard operating procedure for businesses and tax officers to obtain GST registration, he said. 

 

The Centre and state governments are working on a uniform guideline to facilitate GST registration for businesses exceeding a tax credit threshold of INR 250,000 per month, and the proposal will be placed before the GST Council, he said. Tax officers are also discussing automation in the process of cancellation of GST registration and streamlining the grounds on which a GST officer can cancel registration of a business, he added. 

 

According to him, currently there is "non-uniformity" in the procedure followed by the central GST formation and various state formations in granting registration under the GST regime to large businesses that pass on credit over INR 250,000 per month, and this creates uncertainty. "We are trying to come up with some sort of a uniform circular, which will be approved by GST Council. That will provide uniform guidelines, not only for the officers, but also for taxpayers ... We are talking to the states... for coming up with a uniform SoP or uniform document and information which will be there in the (registration) form," Mangal said at the National Taxation Summit organised by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The GST Council had last year approved a simplified GST registration scheme for small and low-risk businesses, which was rolled out on Nov. 1. These applicants have monthly credit of less than INR 250,000. Speaking at the National Taxation Summit, Mangal said about 65% of GST registrations are now happening through this route.

For the remaining 35% of new GST registration applications, mainly for bigger businesses that are above that threshold, the Centre and states officers are working to bring uniformity to the documents that need to be submitted and the information that has to be provided to avoid delay or further queries from tax officers. "We are talking to states... because there are some requirements of different states," Mangal said, adding that discussions were also underway to improve the process that is there on the GST Network system to ensure more hand-holding of the taxpayer. 

 

The proper guidance envisaged under this move would also eventually reduce the time taken to process the registration applications, the CBIC member said. "Thereafter, it will reduce the time for processing of applications."

 

Mangal also said that the government is considering reviewing the grounds on which a GST registration can be cancelled. "There are some complaints that cancellations are being done on baseless grounds. So that also we are examining. But again, everything will depend on the agreement between the states," he said. 

 

The government is also considering whether some sort of "automation" can be brought about for cancellation of registration, which will not involve approval from tax officers. "Whether in some cases, we can give some sort of automatic approval for cancellation or where the verification is being given, whether the proceeding can be dropped," he said.  End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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