Can GST Portal Handle 300 Crore Invoices/Month? 25 Issues Already Discovered!

 

Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime came into effect starting July, 2017, and the very first month collections turned out to be Rs 92,283 crore, thereby being hailed as a massive success.

However, truth is that issues are there, and these issues are making life tough for the small trader, small businesses.

We have already reported about traders who are threatening to protest against GST, and how UP Govt. has launched a dedicated portal, just to entertain GST related complaints.

It seems that the protests and complaints have reached the right ears, as a complete system-wide audit would be conducted by The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

Besides, a special panel of Ministers will meet every fortnight, as they have recognized and acknowledged around 25 major issues with GST portal.

This means that the process of tax filing under GST will now improve, and the first concrete steps have been taken.

Can GST Portal Handle 300 Crore Invoices A Month?

Govt. of India, while launching the GST portal, had famously claimed that the portal can manage 300 crore invoices a month, pertaining to GST filings.

After repeated complaints against the complexities, and slow speed of the portal, The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has been roped in to audit the entire GST network, and to figure out whether the claims are correct or not.

Note here, that as per the Amendments made in the GST Laws, CAG has been authorized and empowered to audit the technical and operational capabilities of the system, and this audit is part of that protocol.

However, one question arises: Why didn’t CAG audit the network before launching the site?

As per reports coming in, GSTN had approached CAG for the audit, before the launch of GST in July. However, CAG informed them that once the network is up and running, then only proper audit makes sense.

An unnamed official has said that in need arises, professionals from abroad can also be roped in. Infosys, which is providing technical infrastructure for GST, hasn’t responded yet.

Panel of Ministers Identify 25 GST Issues

Meanwhile, a special panel of Ministers have been formed under Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, whose main task would be to identify issues related with GST, and solve them in a timely manner.

This special panel will meet every fortnight, and discuss the issues.

They already had a meeting in Bengaluru on September 16th, and have identified around 25 major issues, related with mainly payments and registration.

Sushil Kumar Modi said, “Over 25 issues have been identified which needs to be resolved and timelines have been set for each of them. Overall we are satisfied with the performance of GSTN and Infosys is doing its best to make it error free,”

The statement clearly gives a clean chit to Infosys here.

Besides Modi, other members of this special panel are: Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, Chhattisgarh Minister of Commercial Taxes Amar Agrawal, Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Telangana Finance Minister Etela Rajender.

There are more than 85 lakh registered GST users as of now, and so far, 22 crore invoices have been uploaded on the GST portal. As shared earlier, the portal has a capacity to process 300 crore invoices in a month.

We will keep you updated as we receive more news related with GST.