The Government and GST Software: A Unified Approach to Facilitate E-way Bill

[Priya Sharma]

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is the backbone of the new taxation regime. It has been five years since the GSTN got launched. However, the taxpayers have been complaining about the taxation network as the compliance with GST has been extremely painful for the taxpayers and especially the MSMEs. And the recent technological glitch that resulted in the failed implementation of GST e-way bill worsen the situation. Hence, the government has taken some serious measures in order to help the taxpayers, simplify taxation processes, most importantly the e-way billing system.

The challenges

Since the GSTN is a very large network, the process to revamp incurred some of the biggest difficulties in it. The technology-providing company to the new indirect taxation regime was established in the year 2013. And initially, the entire focus of the government was on to hire the right employees and integrating required technologies with it. But during the implementation of GST in 2017, when the laws modified drastically, the government had to rework on the entire network. Initially, there was only one form for all kind of dealers, but after the roll-out, the forms had to be made different.

A time-consuming process

The government, foreseeing the demands of the businesses for the ease of the return filing procedure, requires time. Making the process easier demands input of every entity associated with it, whether directly or indirectly. The entire network of accountants, GST Suvidha providers, and GST software providers are required to sync to develop a time-effective return filing process. Just because the network of all these entities is extremely vast, the shortage of time is hindering the revamp to be smooth and result-oriented.

The safety of data

Amidst all the hassle of return filing and ITC claims under GST, the taxpayer couldn’t pay attention to the safety processes of the data. To ensure that the data of the taxpayers is free from any kind of breach, the government has kept the entire data-retrieving process encrypted. As per the government, only two people have the access to the database of the taxpayers. One of them is the person who uploads the data on the network. The other one is the assigned authority who handles all the judicial matters related to the taxation. Moreover, the access of the admin over the taxpayer’s database is restricted.

The roll-out again

During the time of initial roll-out of the e-way billing system, the portal collapsed and the government had to bear the aggression of the transporters. The logistics sector became stagnant for a while and faced losses as they weren’t able to use the GST software to ease the e-way billing process. Also, there was no guarantee of remedy from the government’s side as well. But now as the time of re-implementation nears, the government assures that nothing is left out. This time the NIC (National Informatics Center) played a vital role in the revamp. The bill is not only developed for inter-state movements, but also tested multiple times to assure success. With the re-implementation of the bill, the government assures 75 lakh bills in a day irrespective of the earlier limit of 26 lakh bills.

What is an e-way bill?

However, the re-roll-out of e-way will resume the billing process and thus the government would also easily analyze the tax evasion measure, if any, in the transportation of the goods and services. An e-way bill is an electronic document that is provided to every vehicle carrying either goods or services or both from one place to another. That bill, containing all the essential details of the consignment, get uploaded to the GSTN. This way the government can track the movement of the goods and services.

Summarizing

After all the backlash due to the complexities of the GST regime, the government now seems promising as it assures an effective roll out of the e-way billing system. A lot of amendments in all the processes means that there is least or no glitch left in the regime now. The revamped e-way billing system will come into the effect from April 1, 2018. As far as the roll-out of the e-way bill for interstate movements is concerned, the government needs time to analyze the transportation frequency and thus streamline the bill accordingly.