evidence: Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that taxpayer base has almost doubled in the last four years from 66.25 lakh to 1.28 crore. [...] Expressing satisfaction on overcoming most of the GST implementation challenges, including two waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, the minister also thanked taxpayers for their support in making GST a reality. [...] Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will be issuing certificate of appreciation to 54,439 GST payers for timely filing of returns and cash payment of GST in the last four years. More than 88 per cent of these taxpayers are from micro, small and medium enterprises.