The commercial taxes department on Thursday said it would collect the GST, at applicable rates from traders, regardless of whether they accept payments via UPI or cash from customers.

The department issued a detailed statement responding to reports that sections of traders have stopped accepting payments through the UPI apps after it issued GST notices to unregistered traders whose annual UPI transactions breached the Rs 20 lakh cap in the case of services and Rs 40 lakh in the case of goods.

The department has urged traders, who have received notices, to explain with supporting documents to the authorities that issued the notices. The officers will verify the documents and suggest the remedies and levy the GST at applicable rates only on taxable turnover after excluding the tax-exempt goods and services.

Commissioner Vipul Bansal and Additional Commissioner Chandrashekhar Nayak said they have instructed officials to guide traders and create awareness. The department, the two officers said, would ensure a smooth process of registration of unregistered traders. As of now, 98,915 traders have registered with the department and are paying taxes under the composition scheme.

The statement said traders can smoothly pay 1% of taxable turnover under the composition scheme. The number of persons who have received notices are less than 10% of registered GST taxpayers under the composition scheme. Majority of such dealers under the composition scheme are already paying taxes.