GSTN enrolment window to re-open on June 1 for 15 days

GSTN conducting pilot on GST Software from May 2-16 with 3,200 taxpayers

AROUND 61 LAKH TAXPAYERS COVERED IN PHASE 1

THE ENROLMENT window for Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the IT backbone of GST, will be reopened on June 1 for 15 days, the finance ministry said in a statement. Around 61 lakh taxpayers out of total 84 lakh assessees have already enrolled under the first phase of enrolment on the new payment portal of GSTN that ended on April 30, it said.

Discussions on enrolment on GSTN were a part of the meeting chaired by Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on Wednesday, where he met GSTN, CBEC and Infosys officials to take stock of IT preparedness for GST rollout from July 1 this year.

The process of migration of 84 lakh VAT, excise and service tax assessees to the GSTN had started in November, with a phased enrolment plan for each state. The government had earlier set March 31 as the migration deadline, which was later extended to April 30, following which the government shut down the enrolment process for technical reasons.

The GSTN is conducting a pilot on GST System Software from May 2-16 with 3,200 taxpayers drawn from each State/ut and Centre as participants to test the three modules of Registration, Returns and Payment and to get their feedback on the live system, thestatementsaid.“allstakeholders involved in the GST system from taxpayers to banks to RBI to accounting authorities are participating in this exercise, which is likearehearsalfortherealrollout. The feedback from the pilot will be used to further improve the GST software,” it said.

The pilot for testing GST software includes using offline tool by GSTN to record invoice data, creation of Supply Return (GSTR1), viewing auto-generated purchase return (GSTR-2A) and reconciliation of payment by accounting authorities with data received from banks and RBI among others.

In the review meeting, the Revenue Secretary was also apprised about the software system being developed for GST, training of tax officials and outreach program being undertaken by the tax department across the country. Out of 62,937 tax officials, 24,668 tax officials have been trained on the application software on live system while the remaining officials will be trained by June 15, the statement said.

The review meeting was attended by CBEC Chairman Vanaja N Sarna, GSTN Chairman Navin Kumar, Infosys Executive Vice President Binod H R., Infosys India Business Unit Head C N Raghupathi and officials of CBEC and Revenue Department.

The IT preparedness is a crucial aspect of the proposed indirect tax regime, with the GSTN expected to process around 3 billion invoices every month. After the rollout of the GST regime, all traders would require a 15-digit GST ID number based on their income tax permanent account number (PAN). The GSTN is coordinating with states to link information on traders and issue them tax identification numbers (TIN).

The government is aiming to roll out the new indirect tax regime from July 1. The GST Council, with representatives from Centre and all states/union territories, has finalised four rate categories of 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent and will now meet on May 18-19 for discussion on the fitment of various goods and services into the GST slabs along with finalisation of pending set of rules. ■ National Highways Authority of India's first Masala Bond was Thursday launched at the London Stock Exchange with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari ringing the opening bell. The rupee-denominated bond is aimed at raising capital for infra projects. ■ The bond issue received strong response from investors on Thursday, attracting bids worth over Rs 3,000 crore. Through the issue, NHAI aims to raise Rs 5,000 crore. The transaction marks the largest ever five year issuance in Masala Bond market. PTI

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