Tax officials have been strategizing to encourage more businesses to register for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and further increase the taxpayer base. To achieve the objective, the Central Board of Excise and Customs has decided to focus on small businesses and dealers who may be exempt from registering for GST. At present, businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs. 20 lakh (or Rs. 10 lakh in some States) are exempt from registering for GST. Officials believe that as the new tax system stabilizes, more businesses will register under GST, taking the tax base to over one crore in the next one year, if not before. Currently, about 90 lakh businesses are registered under the GST. To enable all traders to take maximum benefit of GST, tax officials would work towards ensuring that all traders, including even relatively smaller traders with a turnover below Rs. 20 lakh, should register with the GST system.