Amidst doubts over its preparedness to meet the rollout of GST, the country’s largest indirect tax reform, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has indicated that all its systems will be in place by the end of this month.
The GSTN, a non-profit, non-government organisation, will provide the IT backbone for the GST, which is scheduled to kick in from July 1.
In its presentation to the GST Council, the GSTN indicated that it will modify its systems to reflect changes in the final forms and rules by June 21, and will also work to finish the enrolment of taxpayers by the earliest.
It is also using the results from the soft launch of the beta version of the GST System to improve the facility for filing returns. About 3,128 taxpayers from the States and Centre participated in the pilot project. Based on their feedback, facilities such as online viewing and download facility for 2,000 invoices will be available.
Fully equipped
Expected to handle nearly 300 crore of B2B invoices every month as part of the return filing, concerns have been raised in several quarters on whether the GSTN is fully equipped for the rollout. To this end, to apprise the States of its preparedness, the GSTN made a presentation before the GST Council in its meeting on June 3.
“The GSTN expressed confidence that it is fully ready,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said after the meeting.
About 76.5 per cent of the taxpayers of value added tax and 6.78 lakh taxpayers of Central excise duty and service tax have already been enrolled for GST, and the GSTN hopes to complete the enrolment process by the middle of the month.
Giving a timeline of its activities, it has indicated that it will also complete enrolment of GST practitioners by June 17 and then take up enrolment of those opting for the composition scheme from June 25.
The GSTN has also set up a 100-seater call centre and will have an additional call centre with 400 agents from July 1.
It has also completed integration with 25 banks for internet banking and over-the-counter payments. The integration of the payment gateway with seven banks is also under way.