GST Network Project on Significant Consideration: Infosys

India is going through Lockdown part 2, and most of the people are working from their homes. The finance ministry a few days ago denoted some points to Infosys for improvement in the GST Network enhancement project. If you don’t know, The GST Network portal (GSTN) Read out the complete guide of official GST return filing portal i.e. GSTN for Indian taxpayers. We explain all the important part with the brief introduction. Read more, which is the backbone for the goods and services tax (GST), is managed by Infosys.

Recently, Salil Parekh, CEO, Infosys said that “Infosys is ‘extremely mobilized’ on the GST Network enhancement project and work is progressing at ‘full speed’ even as a large segment of its employees are working remotely amid the nationwide lockdown”. Parekh stated that “I think we’re extremely mobilized, working very closely with the GST Council. In fact, our Chairman Nandan (Nilekani) had met them. There’s a detailed plan that is also internally being developed, we are working towards it. There are some constraints obviously on procurement of some hardware and but as we come closer to July, we’ll have a sense on that basis in terms of the manpower deployment,”

In his statement, he especially mentioned that they are working on the GST Network enhancement project at full speed even in the tough time of lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak that has made the majority of Infosys staff work remotely or work from home. Parekh further added “It’s at full speed, even in this remote working situation. And we’re making every attempt to make sure all of those discussions that we were part of, we are executing upon. As of now, we have everything fully mobilized,” In the statement, he also added that “a discussion will take place around July to make sure all the hardware pieces which need to be procured are fully available, given the supply chain constraints in the hardware”.

As we stated above that in the previous month, the finance ministry addressed to Infosys indicating some of the issues and problems that were come to light in the year 2018 are still unresolved. Failures and problems month after month are making genuine taxpayers “frustrated”. The finance ministry also asked Infosys the Bengaluru-based company to prepare and represent a plan or roadmap for quick resolution of all the tech glitches occurring on the GSTN portal.

After it, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of Infosys had prepared a detailed presentation and also represented it in front of the GST Council Meeting Get to know about GST (Goods and Services Tax) council 1st to 39th meeting updates and decisions taken by members. We have covered 1st meeting to last meeting decisions. Read more for upgrading the network to a better GST Network system as well as denoted all the requirement of hardware to improve the capacity for addressing the issues which are system-related and being faced by taxpayers in the various procedure performed on the GSTN portal. On the basis of Presentation and improvement plans, the Council had agreed to up-gradation of hardware and also agreed for more skilled manpower to improve the capacity of the portal. For all this work and to improve the GSTN design, the council also gave time till July.

Parekh in his statement also shared the information about getting staff back that around 93%of Infosys staff are working from home (remotely) in the lockdown period, and when the lockdown starts to ease off, we will keep only 5 to 10 percent of its employees on-premises other will continue their work from home for some more times. His statement was “…(When) things start to ease off, our first phase will be between 5 and 10 percent, so it’s a very gradual moving back. Even with that, there will be a lot of attention on social distancing, in transport, even in the seating within the campus, some level of partitions between seating, different usage in terms of hygiene and safety within the campus. We put in temperature checks,”

He also informed that in some centers outside India, the company is following a similar strategy. “It will be in the range of 5-10 percent in the first phase, and then we’ll see how that plays out what the situation with the lockdowns is. And then the next phase will kick in,” It is worth to mention here that many of its locations in India such as Pune and Bengaluru are in the hot spot classification or red zone.

Read Also: Compare Old vs New GST Return Filing System View the full comparison report between old and new GST return filing system in a systematic manner. The new system will be applicable from October 2020. Read more

Home ministry with circular and guidelines had allowed IT/ ITeS companies to continue their work with up to 50% strength from April 20, 2020. However, many states like Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh are imposing full lockdown. It is clear that around 90% of employees from the IT field and around 70-80% of BPO and other small and mid-sized businesses are working from home to ensure business continuity.

As per sources, Most of the IT companies like HCL Technologies, SAG Infotech Private Limited, and Tech Mahindra have allowed their staff to work from home or remote locations to ensure the safety of employees. Additionally, industry body Nasscom, a few days ago also advised members to follow a staggered approach and start their working with only 15-20 percent staff in the first phase, and then scale it up as per the situation.