Government has taken decision to organize workshops to make the people aware about Goods and Services Tax (GST).  Both at the Central and States level have been organizing GST Awareness campaigns through workshops all across the country to spread awareness on GST.

The workshops are being conducted in a town hall format all across the country by the field formations of CBEC, with power point presentations and resource material provided by National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN).

All field formations are involved in conducting these workshops, and even though a city-wise record is not maintained, an online portal has been especially created by the Directorate General of Systems, CBEC (https://gstawareness.cbec.gov.in) for online reporting of awareness campaigns all over India. The website, apart from capturing data of the events held, also provides information to the public on upcoming events (date and place) for their convenience.

A typical GST Awareness workshop is conducted for half a day (about 3 hours). A total of 5198 workshops have been held till date (28.07.2017) all over India in almost all cities. Region-wise details are as under:-

Zones	No. of Workshops
North	1125
South	909
Central	820
East	1288
West	1056
Total	5198

These workshops were started in a structured manner from last week of March, 2017.

Numerous senior officers of Central Board of Excise and Customs, Commercial Taxes Department and officers trained by National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) are conducting these workshops.

This was stated by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Finance in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Goods and Services Tax awareness workshops mobilize nationwide outreach; online portal registers events and provides public schedules. Goods and Services Tax (GST) awareness workshops are being conducted nationwide by CBEC and state field formations in a half day town hall format using NACIN materials; an online portal maintained by the Directorate General of Systems, CBEC records and publicizes events and captures data. Since late March 2017, trained officers and senior officials have conducted 5,198 workshops across regions to disseminate information on GST.