Assocham further said that taxpayers have 'not yet migrated to the GSTN portal' due to reasons like non-familiarity with IT tools as well as the registration process.
Business chamber Assocham said on Saturday that neither the taxpayers nor the Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN), its IT backbone, is ready for the new unified indirect tax regime to be rolled out on July 1, 2017. In a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Assocham has asked him to defer the implementation of the new GST regime.
"This being the status of preparedness of GST Network, the taxpayers would find it very difficult to comply with GST requirement from 1st July 2017," Assocham said in the letter.
Referring to the statement of GSTN CEO Prakash Kumar, the Assocham said:"GSTN will not be fully operational on the 1st of July 2017."
Assocham further said that taxpayers have 'not yet migrated to the GSTN portal' due to reasons like non-familiarity with IT tools as well as the registration process.
"We believe that industry deserves some more time and assistance to get prepared for GST implementation," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said
"It has been stated that certain deficiencies in the return formats resulting in glitches in operation of GSTN were detected during a beta test done about a month back. Consequently, the return formats were completely revised, which in turn led to certain major changes in the IT software," the letter read. There were reports of traders complaining of glitches in the GSTN software for migration.
Sumit Dutt Majumdar, former chairman of CBEC, the apex body of Indirect tax, said, "I maintain that GST is a great reform, we must welcome it with adequate preparation, particularly on GSTN, the IT infrastructure which will be fully operational only in the end July, going by their own statement. Therefore, deferment to 1st September will help everyone, and GSTN can also have test runs in all their modules by that time."
Last week Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted that rumours of a delay in the implementation of the GST are false.
The government is set to launch India's biggest and ambitious tax reform since independence 70 years ago, which replace 15 deferent kinds of state and central indirect taxes.
){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}
){kind=small}
 "GST")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}