Over 22k firms registered under GST Act after Covid outbreak in GB Nagar
While as many as 15,472 firmed were registered under the GST Act during the fiscal 2020-21, over 6,812 firms were registered in the current financial year 2021-22 far
Thirty-five-year-old Ram Pratap Singh was disheartened when he lost his job as an executive in a textile marketing agency in Noida soon after the Covid-19 outbreak in March last year. But when his wife Sujata Singh, who works in a book marketing agency, asked him to try his luck in digital marketing, he started a book marketing company. He registered the company under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Act to avail its benefits. At present, Singh earns around ₹75,000 a month.
Gaurav Sharma of Greater Noida has a similar story. Before the pandemic, he was working in a packaging company. After losing his job in June last year, he opened an online stationery store and registered it under the GST Act. Nowadays, Sharma earns at least ₹50,000 per month through his online firm.
Despite a major slowdown in commercial activities across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, over 22,000 firms were registered under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Act in Gautam Budh Nagar district, a significantly higher number than previous years.
Manavendra Pratap Singh, additional commissioner of state GST in Gautam Budh Nagar, said that the number of firms registered under the GST Act in the district has increased every year. “While in the fiscal 2018-19, the number of registered firms in the district was 11,664, it was 14,613 in the next fiscal 2019-20. While as many as 15,472 firmed were registered under the GST Act during the fiscal 2020-21, over 6,812 firms were registered in the current financial year 2021-22 far,” he said.
He said that to encourage more entrepreneurs to register their firms the GST Act, the state government has eased the application and approval processes. “We are providing business owners with GST registration numbers within a week after they upload the mandatory documents on the department’s portal. We have registered several small and medium firms, set up by people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. As per our records, these firms are doing good work now,” he said.
Singh also said that the owners of all these registered firms have accidental insurance coverage of ₹10 lakh. “Earlier, this insurance scheme was being run by different insurance companies. But now, the state GST department immediately provides the entrepreneurs’ dependants with the insurance amount in case of their accidental death. It is also one of the major reasons that more and more entrepreneurs are turning up for GST registration,” he said.