GSPs Businesses Drop, the Council Made Filing Process Easier

The new decision was taken by the government which provides relaxation in intervals of filing returns. Furthermore, the GST Council made the tax filing process easier for businesses, which has to lessen the businesses of both, GST Suvidha providers (GSPs) and Assisted Suvidha providers (AGSPs). The new move is beneficial only for the SMEs and businesses. However, various GSPs, many of them are at an initial stage, said that the changes in policies influenced their businesses and earnings.

“With the government allowing the quarterly filing of returns for small businesses instead of the monthly system earlier, our business has come down significantly. Further, the government has suspended GSTR-2 and GSTR-3. Most taxpayers used GSP and ASP solutions for these two forms because of their complexity and require a software to do returns filing. Till March, it is unlikely anybody would use a GSP solution,” said Himanshu Jain, founder of tax solution Provider.

The deadlines for filing returns of GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 forms have been extended by the council till March 2018. The council also said that all businesses will be required to file only the simplified GSTR- 3B returns for the duration of July- March 2018. Businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crores have to file GSTR-1 returns quarterly, whereas companies with an annual turnover of more than Rs 1.5 crores will be required to file returns monthly.

“Most of the GSP systems are currently not functioning and it surely implies there will be no demand for ASPs. The businesses are preferring to directly access the GST Network site for filing the returns,” said GST solution provider.

Both, GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs) and assisted suvidha providers (AGSPs) have been approved by the government of India. It enables taxpayers to file their GST returns when the official website of GST is not functioning. It is also an alternative to government’s GST Network site (GSTN), which crashed several times due to the technical glitches and with the load of 80 lakh taxpayers

“Since businesses can fill out GSTR-1 on their own using the government’s GST Network site, a lot of the companies who have a contract with us are asking for a refund,” said Jain. The firm has a total of 850 large clients, out of the 150-200 are asking for returns. “The larger ones have paid Rs 2-3 lakh each for a contract with us.” Infosys backed GST start is trying to retain present clients and not charging anything for new ones currently.” Currently, the system is too dynamic and the GSPs are unable to provide their services.

GSPs suvidha provider said, “Currently, the system is too dynamic and the GSPs are unable to provide their services. In such a situation, it does become difficult for us to answer and manage our customers.” GST Solutions Provider said, “We will prepare according to the needs for the next six months and take it from there”.

It is expected that the demand will be low until March and also depends on when GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 forms are reconstructed. The GST Council said that the panel of government will look into the matter of filing two forms. “We had a forecast a turnover of Rs 20-25 crore from GST. It has hardly translated into Rs 5-6 crore,” said tax solutions provider

Gupta said, “The company, which also provides accounting software, expects GST-related turnover to come down to 5 percent compared to the estimated 15 percent.”