Tamil Nadu is ready to roll out the goods and services tax (GST) on July 1, the scheduled date, for which the state government has already brought 86% of the dealers under the new tax regime. Customization of software for GST is also progressing well.

After holding out on joining the new tax regime during the tenure of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, the successive state governments under O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami have been claiming credit for inclusion of several clauses in the final GST Act. On Saturday, the state declared it was ready for the roll out.

“Tamil Nadu is fully committed to the roll out and successful implementation of the GST.

Rolling out GST involves training of officials, traders and upgrading software, hardware and including traders, who were hitherto paying excise and not sales tax.

“So far 5.19 lakh dealers out of 6.01 lakh have migrated to the new tax regime and have been registering online.

Tamil Nadu sought to keep out alcohol and petroleum outside the purview of GST. “Both are money spinners for the government and similar demands were raised by other states and finally both are outside GST.