GST was touted as a Good and Simple tax for the people. However, six months down the line traders continuously complain that the accounting and return filing cost have doubled. The GST council as well as the government claims of:
- Easy invoice upload process via GSTN portal and
- Useful Offline Tools for Invoice Creation
As per reports, even small traders are compelled to take services of Chartered Accountants and tax professionals for GST return filing.
Further, the Bombay High Court while listening to a plea, asserted that the GSTN was not hassle-free. It asked the central government and the GST Council to remove the technical glitches at the earliest. The court in a statement observed that the presently followed GST regime is not trader friendly.
The court said,”We do not think that these are a satisfactory state of affairs”. The GST was highly publicised. But since its implementation, the new Tax regime has been followed with great hue and cry. Some of the issues which need immediate attention and solution are:
Inefficient Offline Tool
The offline tool has limited scope as not all the invoices depending on different industry verticals can be generated using the tool. It’s a standard format which has to be edited by the individual trader or private firm. Taxpayers have to seek monthly subscriptions of services from various other tax solution providers.
Unable to Import Invoices on the GSTN Portal
Traders grieve that self-made invoices have to be converted into excel sheet format which further requires services of a Chartered Accountant or an Aggregator. The offline tool is further loaded with a plethora of ZIP files which further makes the process of return filing tedious and lengthy. Small and medium scale traders are facing increased expenditure in lieu for return filing services from CA’s and other services.
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In the light of the prevailing glitches and taxpayers grievances, the government needs to sufficiently test and then launch interfaces such as an e-way bill, credit matching, annual return filing, etc in a routine manner. There is not an iota of doubt in India’s world-class IT infrastructure but by the time these technical glitches subside in the long term, the government needs to find an interim solution or mechanism to counter the present roadblocks.
