Patna: Bihar and Jharkhand have seen a 29 per cent jump in tax revenue collection within a year of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) being implemented, while the number of taxpayers has increased by 102 per cent.

The growth in tax revenue was around 70 per cent during the first two months of the current financial year 2018-19, in comparison to the same period in the last financial year.

Principal chief commissioner of central excise and service tax (Ranchi zone), Sheo Narayan Singh said the growth has been witnessed due to serious efforts by officials in the implementation of GST.

"Our revenue collection in Bihar and Jharkhand has grown by 29 per cent to Rs 19,686 crore in 2017-18 in comparison to Rs 15,278 crore the previous year (2016-17). Similarly, there is a growth of 70 per cent to Rs 4,439 crore during the first two months of 2018-19 in comparison to Rs 2617 crore in the same period last financial year," Singh said.

The principal chief commissioner of central excise and service tax (Ranchi zone) said the taxpayers' base has risen by 102 per cent to 1.66 lakh in 2017-18 in comparison to 82,000 in 2016-17.

He also said that businessmen and traders in rural areas of Bihar and Jharkhand have also taken up GST.

Income tax principal chief commissioner K.C. Ghumaria said his department was reaping the benefits of GST and around 5.2 lakh new income tax payers have come up in Bihar and Jharkhand.

Pratima, Bihar commissioner commercial taxes, income tax director general (investigations) S.R. Malik, central taxes commissioners Ranjeet Kumar, Vinayak Chandra Gupta, Bihar Industries Association president K.P.S. Keshri and Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industry president P.K. Agrawal were present on the occasion.