Dispelling doubts about the state of preparedness for the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, GST Network Chairman Navin Kumar said on Friday that the system was fully ready for the July 1 launch.
However, the IT system for the proposed e-way bill is still being worked on, and it may have to be deferred by two-three months.
“The work to build a system for the e-way bill is likely to be transferred to the National Informatics Centre (NIC) as getting it done through Infosys would be too expensive,” Navin Kumar told
The NIC may base the e-way bill system on Karnataka’s e-transit system. “I expect that the NIC will take some time to scale up the system for the expected 80 lakh taxpayers,” he said.
According to the draft e-way bill, issued in April, movement of goods worth over ₹50,000 had to be mandatorily registered with the GST Network. The GST Council is expected to approve the rules at its meeting on Sunday.
Fearing revenue loss, most States are keen that the e-way bill be introduced alongside the GST regime.
GSTN, which will provide the IT backbone for the new indirect tax levy, expects about 320 crore invoices to be uploaded every month by nearly 80 lakh taxpayers. To manage this traffic, it plans to launch a campaign to encourage taxpayers to upload their invoices regularly.
“This will be the focus for the first month of the launch. We ideally don’t want taxpayers to upload all the invoices at one go when they start filing their returns, but to do it at least once a week or fortnight,” Kumar said.
It is also working with GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs) to finalise their software and Application Programme Interface (APIs), which should be ready by the first week of July.
“We have been meeting with them regularly. Our system has to adapt to changes made in the rules and formats. Similar changes are then made by the GSPs in their systems,” he said.
The GSTN had on June 9 given the specs of GST Return 1 to GSPs; it will give them the real API on June 28. “After a week of testing, the GSPs should be ready by July 5 or 6 at the latest,” Kumar said.
The GSTN will also reopen the enrolment window for existing taxpayers from June 25 as well as new taxpayers who are not assessed for value-added tax.