As many as 43.67 lakh businesses have filed the initial GSTR-3B returns for the month of October - the highest monthly return filing within due date, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has said.

The last date of GSTR-3B filing, which is the initial sales return, for October was on 20 October. Around 56 per cent of the registered taxpayers filed their GSTR-3B returns for October within due date.

"The number of taxpayers filing their GSTR-3B returns is showing marked improvement month after month with about 43.67 lakh of them filing their GSTR-3B returns for October till 20 November 2017, the highest so far," GSTN said in a statement.



As many as 39.33 lakh returns were filed within due date for September and 28.46 lakh for August and 33.98 lakh for July.



"There is a steady rise in the number of taxpayers filing their GSTR-3B returns every month which is encouraging to see.



The trend of taxpayers filing their returns on the last day continues though. Taxpayers are urged to file their returns early to avoid last minute hassles," GSTN Chief Executive Officer Prakash Kumar said.



As many as 14.76 lakh taxpayers filed their returns on the GST Network portal yesterday. Punjab took the lead once again over all other states in filing the highest number of GSTR-3B returns for October. About 73.09 per cent of the taxpayers in Punjab filed their GSTR-3B returns for October so far, GSTN said. (PTI)