GST Portal upgraded to handle 3 lakh users
It has been over three years since the introduction of GST, but there still continues to be several areas of drawbacks of the GST portal. Even today the GST portal is not error or glitch free. Taxpayers are unable to access GST Return filing system before deadline runs out.
The taxpayers are complaining about the continuous inconvenience they face while filing GST Returns. This is the story every month as the GSTN website stop working for hours during last days of filing returns. Frequent technical glitches of the GST Network website is become a big cause of inconvenience for taxpayers and other compliances continue to get affected due to these tech snags.
Being aware of all these issues, the GSTN network has now been scaled up to handle more than double the current load from August 2020. Enhancement of the capacity of the GSTN common portal will lead to handling 3 lakh taxpayers at any single point of time (increased from 1.5 lakh currently).
Recently, senior officials from the GSTN and GST policy wing, with a view to remedy the hardships faced by the taxpayers, announced certain steps that are proposed to be taken to improve the overall compliance framework. Once such key change was the enhancement of the capacity of the GSTN common portal to handle 3 lakh taxpayers at any single point of time.
The portal of GST Network (GSTN), which provides the technology backbone for the goods and services tax, is managed by Infosys. In March 2020, the finance ministry wrote to Infosys saying some of the problems highlighted as early as 2018 are still unresolved and failures month after month lead to genuine taxpayers “getting frustrated” and asked the Bengaluru-based company to provide a plan for quick resolution of glitches on the GSTN portal.
Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani had then made a detailed presentation to the GST Council for the transition into a better GST Network system and the requirement of hardware to enhance capacity for addressing the system-related issues that are being faced by taxpayers in the IT system. The Council had agreed to the demand for more skilled manpower and better hardware to enhance capacity and given time till July 2020 to improve the GSTN design, instead of the proposed timeline of one year from March 2020.
The GSTN therefore upgraded their portal and network amidst challenges in procuring hardware that were face due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Taxpayers can now look forward to fewer issues on the GST Portal while submitting their documents and filing their returns.
It is also imperative to note that GST Portal will be unavailable for the major system maintenance activity on 7th August 2020 between 10 pm and 3 am (8th August, 2020).
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