Union minister for law and justice Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday directed officials dealing with Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Bihar to publicise details of help desks for people who want to clear doubts about the new tax system that rolled out on July 1.

"Please publicise the details of the help desks and also the mobile number of officers who are manning them so that those in need of help could easily access this facility," Prasad told officials during a programme on GST organised by the commissionerate of GST in Bihar.

Apart from GST commissioner for Bihar Ranjit Kumar, people from industry and trade bodies, including Bihar chapter of Confederation of Indian Industry, Bihar Industry Association and Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries, took part in the event.

The Union minister chose to highlight the benefits of GST and maintained that it will give the business community freedom from "inspector raj", "bureaucratic red tape" and "numerous check posts".

Replying to a request from a participant for providing a direct platform on social media through which people could register their complaint, Prasad said people could send their complaints directly to him by using his Twitter handle ( @rsprasad), or his Facebook page.

Prasad, who also holds charge of information technology, directed GST officials in Bihar to submit a monthly report to him about the kind of complaints they were receiving and the steps taken to redress the grievances.

Replying to a query about the problems which could haunt small traders, particularly those in the hinterland with little access to computer and Internet, the Union minister maintained that people of India had exhibited extraordinary adaptability to new things and he was confident that small traders from far-off places too will become conversant with the new system. "There are common service centres all across the country where traders can go for computer-related entry work and return filings," he added.

Commissioner (Bihar) Ranjit made a detailed presentation on the new system to brief participants about the various aspects of GST and the process they need to use for registration. He said around 16,000 traders and businessmen in Bihar had already registered with the new system.

He announced that apart from holding interactive sessions with businessmen in Patna, officials of the GST commissionerate will visit other towns to organise similar sessions. Ranjit said that the government wanted to give enough time to people to get acclimatised with the new system and hence it had been decided that the monthly return for July could be filed till September this year.

Under GST, businessmen are supposed to file one return every month.

GST, however, will not be applicable for traders who have an annual turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh. For traders who have an annual turnover up to Rs 75 lakh, a fixed tax rate has been set and such traders need to file their return once every three months.