The government has written to Infosys co-founder and non-executive chairman Nandan Nilekani to look into the technical issues in the Goods and Services Tax Network , which have led to payment delays and caused anguish to genuine taxpayers. A resolution plan has been sought within 15 days.

IT services provider Infosys NSE 1.77 % has been asked to fix persistent technical issues in the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) within 15 days, even as the agency is thinking of ways to increase capacity to handle millions of returns filed each month. The government has written to Infosys cofounder and non-executive chairman Nandan Nilekani to look into the issues, which have led to payment delays and caused anguish to genuine taxpayers. A resolution plan has been sought within 15 days.

Infosys, which runs the IT backbone of the GSTN, declined to comment. “This department and GST Policy Wing in Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) have been regularly apprising you of the issues which require quick resolution. However, it is noticed that the progress in this regard has been tardy and some of the problems highlighted as early as 2018 are also still unresolved,” the state taxes director of the revenue department wrote in the letter dated March 5 to Nilekani as well as the GST project manager.

The GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B forms, which are uploaded monthly, require the GSTN system to be robust, which the revenue department has been flagging since the past 30 months. A dysfunctional or inept system leads to unhealthy tax compliance, especially if disruptions cause some taxpayers to pay late fee or interest, the government said.

It also expressed apprehension over whether the system would be able to cope with new initiatives to curb tax evasion and augment revenue — which the government intends to unveil soon, besides transitioning to a new system. “It is requested to go through the pending issues, day-to-day disruptions and the future roadmap and come up with a plan for quick resolution within 15 days,” the director of state taxes said in the letter.

While the government had asked the agency in December 2018 to ramp up capacity to handle a peak load of 5 million returns daily, till date it can handle a peak load of only 150,000 returns daily.

Source : https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/infosys-asked-to-fix-snags-in-gstn-within-15-days/articleshow/74558306.cms