Businessmen, tax practitioners slam Infosys for GSTN glitches

Kochi: Software services provider Infosys was at the receiving end of ire from tax practitioners and members of the business community for glitches in filing the GST returns. 

Infosys is the managed services provider responsible for the development of the GSTN portal for registration, return and payment services for all taxpayers, tax administrators and other stakeholders.

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), responsible for the implementation of the GST had selected Infosys as the managed services provider and also collected Rs 68.98 cr as performance security guarantee from the services provider in case of any failure in services. 

“The government should invoke the security/guarantee clause against the services provider instead of penalising the taxpayers,” said Jacob Santosh, a tax practitioner based in Kochi.

According to Santosh he is facing pressure from several of his clients as they have been slapped with fines for the systemic glitches with the GSTN software. 

“Many other tax practitioners across the country are facing a similar situation,” he added.

“I have submitted GSTR 3B for the month of August on September 20 and kept the required GST amount in the cash ledger on the same day itself. However, due to GSTN site error, the status was shown as “submission in progress”. Consequently we reported the matter to the helpdesk and the issue was resolved after seven days. Now, when we try to offset the liability, the system shows that we have to pay Rs 600 each under CGST and SGST late fee head,” Mr Santosh said. 

In this case the client has been asked to shell out Rs 1,200 as a late fee fine for no fault of his, he said.

The contract awarded to the managed service provider clearly states the service provider is responsible to develop, deploy, commission, operate and maintain GST system technically and commercially. 

“Any failure on their part should be penalised instead of the tax payer,” Santosh said.