The chief of the IT systems company for GST says infrastructure for the July 1 rollout of GST is in place; the firm has initiated load test and will begin new registration from June 21
As the government races towards the deadline of July 1 to rollout the new unified indirect tax – goods and services tax (GST), the not-for-profit information technology (IT) systems company GST Network (GSTN) has initiated load test for double the anticipated invoice traffic on its network.
Navin Kumar, chairman of GSTN, told DNA Money "The system will be handling 320 crore invoice data. So, we have designed our system to take a load which is double of this. The load is dependent not only on volume of data but also on speed, whether it is distributed over 30 days. Almost half of it comes on the last days. We assume that half of it will come on the last day. This required more servers. So, we have computed capacity on that basis".
Kumar said the software for handling GST registrations and online returns filing has already been tested and GSTN was now carrying out the load test.
He said the IT systems company was all set to roll out the software for GST registration from June 21. The government is expecting around 4-5 lakh new registrations of taxpayers under GST regime every year. Currently, the total number of registered taxpayers in the country is around 80 lakh.
According to Kumar, GSTN was building its infrastructure on the basis of the incremental rise of 5%-6% in new registrations every year.
"We expect that it (new registrations) could be another 4-5 lakh every year. Obviously, in the beginning, there may be a bit of a rush. Our projection is 4-5 lakh in a year, which means 40,000 in a month but in the beginning, it could be 60,000 in the first month," said Kumar.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, cabinet secretary P K Sinha issued a letter to bureaucrats of different ministries and departments to set up a GST facilitation cell to ensure smooth launch of GST.
Sinha has asked these cells to be in contact with the various industries and business bodies of their respective ministries and departments to provide support to them for the launch of GST from July 1.
He has also asked the government officials to get the public sector undertakings (PSUs) under their ministries and departments "GST compliant" before the deadline.
He said that while Department of Revenue was making the helplines operational for individual taxpayers to seek resolution of any legal or IT-related issues, the GST facilitation cell would serve as the first point of contact for addressing issues of business or industrial associations under their ministries.
...& ANALYSIS
- The government is expecting around 4-5 lakh new registrations of taxpayers under GST regime every year
- The GST facilitation cell will be the first point of contact for business or industrial associations under their ministries
- GSTN was building its infrastructure on the basis of the incremental rise of 5%-6% in new registrations every year
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "GSTN")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}