At a very positive note by industry experts, the GST is supposed to bring sheer blessings to all the Indian IT companies providing software products in the field of taxation. A pool of intelligent minds of the market was behind the comments and have also assured that the GST regime will take a total opportunity figure up to a staggering Rs. 6000 crores making the opportunity much more similar to the Y2K phenomenon at the corner of the millennium.
Mohandas Pai, the former board member of IT major Infosys, mentioned that “It is a Rs 6,000 crore opportunity, This is a billion-dollar opportunity that will present itself repeatedly for the next two years and then go on to become an annuity business.” The comments were straight forward to the companies which are eyeing upon the opportunity coming along with the GST and also remarked that the GST will make them eligible with a candidature for a lifelong annuity if stricken with a correct and precise momentum.
GST will be demanding an error free software to file the return which is in the provision for 3 returns per month redirecting to the demand for a robust and dynamic accounting and filing software. As earlier GSTN granted a project to the Infosys accounting up to Rs. 1380 crores to maintain the technology behind the GST online operations but the experts said that this is just a part of the whole array of opportunities.
It is discussed that the opportunities will be heading with enterprise resource planning (ERP) which will be helping the SME’s to record the transaction of the GST. Every SME will have to record the GST transaction, upload the invoices and make the return filings and this factor is a major to the IT industry to cater the SME’s handle this procedure. Mohandas Pai also added that “Software product companies will have a field day with the GST roll-out.” and by which means that the opportunity will also bloom in developing POS billing software and creating payment solutions and e-signing products.
An IT filing firm CEO mentions that the organizations lacking in software product will be left behind. While the security and storage will be two major concern for the government as the large data of taxation is supposed to enter within the data servers and the center and the state government is in search for large storage capability and cloud storage by which the providers are expected to benefit.
Manoj Chugh, President (Enterprise Business) at Tech Mahindra mentioned that “Security will be important too since the data could often be sensitive in nature, I expect providers of big data analytics tools and services to be in great demand. Overall, it is much like the Y2K opportunity that presented itself years ago.”
Another opportunity awaiting in the presentation of the GST is that the central and state government will be demanding a range of data analytics and automation tools for excavating the results and post implementation insights. Jaideep Mehta, managing director (South Asia) of research firm IDC mentioned the opportunity in his own words, “I am sure all IT firms in India are looking to tap into it. Not just the biggies, but even the smaller IT firms have a great chance here. The multinational firms too are gearing up to the task.”
Neel Ratan, regional managing partner, PWC, also reiterated the same and said that “The opportunities will be well distributed across the IT spectrum. There could be 50-100 IT companies working on the project. I don’t think big companies alone will get the lion’s share of the business.”
An executive from a large data platform mentioned that, “We believe that business of all sizes, today have a lifetime of an opportunity to digitally accelerate their growth. Ending an era of complexity, leakages and revenue inefficiencies, will enable business leaders to focus on profitability.”
It is now very much confirmed that the upcoming GST will be changing the face of the IT industry. With a large base of clients and business units ready to deal with GST and to register under it, the opportunity very well converts for the active industry makers to get well with the GST and hold their share by adding a productivity oriented work into the fusion.
