Nag-Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce
Temple Road, Civil Lines, Nagpur-440001
Ref: 119/1/2020-21
23/10/2020
To,
1) Shri. Narendra ji Modi,
Hon’ble Prime Minister of India,
Government of India
NEW DELHI- 110 001
2) Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman
Hon’ble Minister for Finance; and Corporate Affairs,
Government of India
NEW DELHI- 110 001
3) Shri. Nitin ji Gadkari,
Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport & Highways of India and
Shipping Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the Government of India
2, Motilal Nehru Place,
In front of Lal bahadur Shastri Smarak,
Akbar Road, New Delhi – 110001
4) Shri. Ajitdada Pawar
Hon’ble Finance Minister of Maharashtra
5th Floor, Main Building Mantralaya, Mumbai-400032
Office Ph: 02222843657, 22843647
5) The Secretary of Lok Sabha
Sansad Marg, Gokul Nagar,
Janpath, Connaught Place,
New Delhi, Delhi 110001
6) The Secretary of Rajya Sabha
Sansad Marg, Gokul Nagar,
Janpath, Connaught Place,
New Delhi, Delhi 110001
7) The Principal Secretary Revenue & Finance
5, New Moti Bagh,
New Delhi
8) The Commissioner of State GST,
8th Floor Vikrikar Bhavan,
Mumbai – 400010, Maharashtra
9) The President,
GST Bar Association,
State GST Bhavan, Telengkhedi Road,
Civil Lines, Nagpur – 440001
10) The President,
GST Practitioners Association of Maharashtra,
8 869, Mazgaon Tower,
21, Mhatar, Pakhadi Road, Mazgaon,
Mumbai – 400010
11) The Chief Commissioner of CGST,
Nagpur Zone,
Central GST Bhavan,
Civil Lines, Nagpur.
12) The Principal Commissioner of CGST
Nagpur – I,
Central GST Bhavan,
Civil Lines, Nagpur.
13) The Principal Commissioner of CGST
Nagpur – II,
Central GST Bhavan,
Civil Lines, Nagpur.
14) The Jt. Commissioner, SGST Nagpur
State GST Bhavan,
Opp. High Court Build.,
Civil Lines, Nagpur – 440001
15) The Secretary GST Council,
5th Floor, Tower II,
Jeevan Bhuti Building, Janpath Road,
Connaught Place, New Delhi – 110001.
Sub.: Representation on deficiency in functioning of GST Portal.
Resp. Sir/Mam,
Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC) Established in 1944, is Apex Trade Association of 13 lac traders of various trade, commerce & industry and their association’s from Vidarbha region, with mission & vision of –
- To promote, support, or defend constitutionally the legislation or other action, either legislative or executive by the State or Central Government, Railways, Local Authority or any other authorities affecting or likely to affect the trade & commerce activity in the region directly or indirectly.
- To consider, originate and support improvements in the laws of the country.
Thus NVCC is instrumental in addressing the needs of business community from the region and operate as a bridge between the Central, State & Local Government and business community, so as to balance the interest of both sides.
Background: It has been more than 3 years that GST has been implemented and it has been a system driven legislature. The GST portal is the back bone of functioning of GST and to make GST law a success a robust GST portal and infrastructure should be in place. However, the GST portal has been disappointing in last 3 years with respect to its performance; we would like to draw your kind attention to the following:
1. User capacity on GST Portal: It was informed to us through various official sources that the GST Portal capacities to handle multiple users were increased from 1.50 lakh to 3 lakh users at a time. However, while filing GST returns on GST portal from 18th Oct to 21st Oct following message was thrown by system “Dear Tax Payer 150,000 tax payers are already submitting their returns at this moment…Please wait for your turn”. We would like to enquire that when the capacity was already increased to 3 lakh then why this message was popped up. If the capacity limit is not yet increased kindly increase it to at least 5 lakh users. When we have more than 100 lakh registered tax payer under GST why is the limit to access the portal is so low?? The social networks like Facebook, YouTube, etc has millions of users and we have never heard of system failure of such servers.
2. Maintenance time: It is observed that many times the GST portal goes for maintenance may be for effective functioning or other reason. However, the maintenance or the clown time is during the business working hours and hence it is requested that. the maintenance time he fixed after the normal business hours i.e after 9 am to 9 pm.
3. Procurement from China: It is reported in various news media that the GST council has to procure some material for enhancing the capacity of GSTN from China. We are aware of the Atmanirbhar Bharat announcement made by Honble PM Shri Narendra Modi and hence request your good office to avoid making any fresh procurement from China and alternatively try to build up the same from local vendors. Even if import is un avoidable the same should be imported from countries other than China.
4. Vendor responsibility: The inefficiency of GST Portal has become one of the key reasons for GST getting the bad name in implementation. We suggest that the vendors of GST Portal like Infosys Ltd. etc should be taken to task and be asked to owe the responsibility of its failure. Heavy damages should be recovered from them due to not providing a stable I.T infrastructure for GST.
5. Robust Income Tax & MCA Site: A clue should be taken from Income Tax, Ministry of Company Affairs and other websites which are functioning robustly without any hassle. The GST website be equipped to handle huge load as multiple users also log in last few days of the due dates as well as all invoices has to be uploaded on it.
6. Report generation: The GST Portal should be made user friendly in terms of report generation and data comparison. Many reports which has to be downloaded by user for verification, reconciliation etc are not generated smoothly. For instances e way bill generated report can be generated for 1 month only, ledgers like Cash balance, Credit balance, liability register etc. can be downloaded for 6 months only. The reports should be allowed to be downloaded at least for full financial year so that reconciliation and verification becomes easier.
- Allow rectification/revision on portal: It is seen many times that due to clerical error/feeding error the data gets wrongly punched however there is no scope of revising or rectifying the same. The portal should allow rectify/revise the returns to clear such errors. The Hon’ble Punjab High Court in Neelkamal Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. V. Union of India and others case has already asked the GST Portal to allow revision/rectification of mistakes on the portal.
We request your good office to look into the matter at the utmost priority as every month GST filing has become challenging due to poor LT. infrastructure of GST Portal.
Ashwin Mehadia
(President)
9766699326
CA. Ritesh Mehta
(Co-Con enor Tax Committee)
822472744
Ramawtar Totla
(Secretary)
9325504266
IT IS BETTER SUCH WEBSITES / PORTALS BE HANDED OVER TO TCS COMPANY WHICH HAS THE BEST TRACK RECORD IN MAINTAINING GOVERNMENT TAX SITES. FOR INSTANCE , IF THE DUE DATE TO REPLY TO A NOTICE IS 02-10-2023, THE PORTAL WILL SHOW THAT DUE DATE HAS EXPIRED ON 01-10-2023 ITSELF. COMPLAINT REGISTERED ON GRIEVANCE PORTAL WILL NOT BE RESOLVED IN SUCH CASES AND NO REPLY WILL BE GIVEN BY THE GSTN. THE TAX PROFESSIONALS MAY HAVE TO FLEE FROM THE PLACES WHERE THEY WORK. THIS LOW PERFORMING PORTAL MAY ALSO DAMAGE THE PROFESSIONALS AND TAX PAYERS.