Teething Troubles

Despite the government's efforts, transitional issues in GST continue to haunt businesses.

- Dipak Mondal

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the IT infrastructure provider for GST, was supposed to take invoice uploading services live from July 16. It has deferred the plan to July 24. GSTN Chairman Navin Kumar says they were not very confident about the preparedness of GST Suvidha Providers, or GSPs, facilitators for uploading invoices/returns on the GSTN website.

GSPs, however, say that GSTN has neither provided them updated APIs (Application Programme Interfaces) nor MPLS (Multi protocol Label Switching), a technique to carry data from one network to another. While they admit that initial hiccups were expected due to the complexity and enormity of the job, they also say that GSTN does not have sufficient staff for such a big task. An executive of a GSP said on condition of anonymity — he even says that GSPs have been asked to not talk about their problems — that GSTN is not only short-staffed, it also lacks quality personnel. He says the GSTN leadership has been unable to get bureaucracy to do things. The managing director of another GSP also said, requesting anonymity, that they have not been provided the latest APIs.

The prevailing view is that the GST rollout has been more or less smooth so far. But a close interaction with users and intermediaries involved in the implementation reveals that this is not completely true. Even as the new system is about to complete one month, the problems, say users, have just started pouring in — be it technical glitches, understanding of the new laws/procedures, or taxpayers’ reluctance/apprehension. And all this when some of the biggest milestones for shifting to the new system — start of invoice/return uploading, tax payments, refunds, etc — are yet to come.

The Troubles