GoM on GST Network to meet on Wednesday to look into technical issues

A group of ministers headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi will meet on Wednesday to look into the technical issues faced by GST Network (GSTN). This will be the sixth meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) after being set up in September 2017. The panel is likely to take stock of the functioning of GSTN and also review the tasks assigned to IT behemoth Infosys for streamlining user experience on the portal, sources said. In 2015, Infosys won a Rs 13.8 billion (Rs 1,380 crore) deal for developing and running GSTN's back end office. GSTN, the information technology backbone and portal for real-time taxpayer registration, migration, and tax return filing under GST, had run into a snag when the first deadline for filing GSTR-3B returns approached, forcing the government to extend the last date. Besides, the deadline for filing the final sales returns GSTR-1 was extended from December 31, 2017, to January 10, 2018, after some taxpayers complained of troubles in uploading returns. The GoM is also likely to deliberate on e-way bill implementation from February 1 and readiness of the platform, the sources added. Under the GST regime, inter-state movement of goods beyond 10 km, with a value of Rs 50,000 and above, will mandatorily require e-way bill from February 1.