GSTN and Frontend Business Process on GST Portal
GST FAQ 2nd Edition – June 2017 as Updated as on 1.1.2018 – GST Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
GST
Q 1. What is GSTN?
Ans. Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a not-for-profit, non-government company promoted jointly by the Central and State Governments, which will provide shared IT infrastructure and services to both central and state governments including tax payers and other stakeholders. The Frontend services of Registration, Returns, Payments, etc. to all taxpayers will be provided by GSTN. It will be the interface between the government and the taxpayers.
Q 2. What was need to create GSTN?
Ans. The GST System Project is a unique and complex IT initiative. It is unique as it seeks, for the first time to establish a uniform interface for the tax payer and a common and shared IT infrastructure between the Centre and States. Currently, the Centre and State indirect tax administrations work under different laws, r
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Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers held on 21/7/2010. In the said meeting the EC approved creation of an 'Empowered Group on IT Infrastructure for GST' (referred to as EG) under the chairmanship of Dr. Nandan Nilekani with Additional Secretary (Rev), Member (B&C) CBEC, DG (Systems), CBEC, FA Ministry of Finance, Member Secretary EC and five state commissioners of Trade Taxes (Maharashtra, Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal and Gujarat) as members. The Group was mandated to suggest, inter alia, the modalities for setting up a National Information Utility (NIU/ SPV) for implementing the Common Portal to be called GST Network (GSTN) and recommend the structure and terms of reference for the NIU/ SPV, detailed implementation strategy and the road map for its creation in addition to other items like training, outreach etc.
In March 2010, TAGUP constituted by the Ministry of Finance had recommended that National Information Utilities should be set up as private companies with a pub
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considered the issue of strategic control of Government over GSTN. The Group recommended that strategic control of the Government over the SPV should be ensured through measures such as composition of the Board, mechanisms of Special Resolution and Shareholders Agreement, induction of Government officers on deputation, and agreements between GSTN SPV and Governments. Also, the shareholding pattern would ensure that the Centre individually and States collectively are the largest stakeholders at 24.5% each. In combination, the Government shareholding at 49% would far exceed that of any single private institution.
EG also brought out the need to have technology specification to run this company so that there is 100 percent matching of returns. The business knowledge resides with the officials of Government of India and States. However, professionals with sophisticated technology knowledge will be required to run this company independently, similar to NSDL which is working professionall
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prior to its incorporation.
ii. The strategic control of the Government over the SPV would be ensured through measures such as composition of the Board, mechanisms of Special Resolution and Shareholders Agreement, induction of Government officers on deputation, and agreements between GSTN SPV and Governments.
iii. The Board of Directors of GSTN SPV would comprise 14 Directors with 3 Directors from the Centre, 3 from the States, a Chairman of the Board of Directors appointed through a joint approval mechanism of Centre and States, 3 Directors from private equity stake holders, 3 independent Directors who would be persons of eminence and a CEO of the GSTN SPV selected through an open selection process.
iv. Relaxation in relevant rules to enable deputation of Government officers to the GSTN SPV for exercise of strategic control and for bringing in necessary domain expertise.
v. GSTN SPV would have a self- sustaining revenue model, where it would be able to levy user charges on th
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Ltd
11%
The GSTN in its current form was created after taking approval of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers and Union Government after due deliberations over a long period of time.
(b) Revenue Model: An amount of 315 Cr. was approved by the Govt. of India as Grants-in-Aid for initial setting up of the GSTN-SPV in 2013. During the period 31.03.2013 to 31.03.2016, an amount of Rs. 143.96 Crores was released as Grant-In-Aid to GSTN out of Rs. 315 Crores approved by Govt of India. Out of the grant-in-aid received, only Rs. 62.11 Cr was spent during this period in setting of the Company and making it functional. The balance grant was returned to Govt. of India. During FY 2016-17, GSTN has got loan sanctioned from a commercial bank to meet expenditure over setting up the IT Platform to provide services to the Center and States through GST portal and developing the backend for 27 States and Union Territories. The Revenue model for GSTN has been approved by the Empowered C
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Processing and reconciliation of GST on import and integration with EDI systems of Customs;
(h) MIS including need based information and business intelligence;
(i) Maintenance of interfaces between the Common GST Portal and tax administration systems;
(j) Provide training to stakeholders;
(k) Provide Analytics and Business Intelligence to tax authorities; and
(l) Carry out research and study best practices.
Q 6. What is the interface system between GSTN and the States/CBEC?
Ans. In GST regime, while taxpayer facing core services of applying for registration, uploading of invoices, filing of return, making tax payments shall be hosted by GST System, all the statutory functions (such as approval of registration, assessment of return, conducting investigation and audit etc.) shall be conducted by the tax authorities of States and Central governments.
Thus, the frontend (GST Portal services) shall be provided by GSTN and the backend modules shall be developed by states and
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d registration to GSTN for eventual download by the taxpayer.
Q 8. What is the role of Infosys in GSTN?
Ans. GSTN has engaged M/S Infosys as a single Managed Service Provider (MSP) for the design, development and deployment of GST system, including all application software, tools and Infrastructure and for operating & maintaining the system for a period of 5 years from the Go-Live date.
Q 9. What are the basic features of GST common portal?
Ans. The GST portal (www.gst.gov.in ) is accessible over Internet (by Taxpayers and their CAs/Tax Advocates etc.) and Intranet by Tax Officials etc. The portal is going to be one single common portal for all GST related services e.g.-
i. Tax payer registration (New, surrender, cancelation, amendment etc.);
ii. Invoice upload, auto-drafting of Purchase register of buyer, GST Returns filing on stipulated dates for each type of return (GSTR [1, 2, 3, 5, 9.etc];
iii. Tax payment by creation of Challan and integration with agency Banks;
i
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RP with GST System etc., various kind of dashboards to view Matched/Mismatched ITC claims, Tax liability, Filing status etc. As invoice level filing is required, so large organizations may require an automated way to interact with GST system as it may be practically impossible for them to upload large number of invoices through a web portal. So an eco- system is required, which can help such taxpayers in GST compliance.
As Tax payer convenience will be the key to success of GST regime, this eco-system will also provide Tax payer options of using third party applications, which can provide different kind of interfaces on desktop/mobile for them to be GST compliant.
All above reasons require an eco-system of third party service providers, who have access to GST System and capability to develop such applications. These service providers have been given a generic name, GST Suvidha Providers or GSP.
Q 12. What will be the role of GST Suvidha Providers (GSP)?
Ans. GSP will be develop
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c requirements of Taxpayers for GST compliance are given below:
1. Conversion of their current invoice format generated by their existing accounting software, which could be in csv, pdf, excel, word format, into GST compliant format.
2. Reconciliation of auto populated data from GST portal with their purchase register data, where purchase register data can be on excel, csv or in any proprietary database and uploaded data from GST format could be in json/csv.
3. Organization having various branches will need a way to upload branch wise invoices, as GST System will only provide one user-id/password for GST system access. An application having role based access and different view for different branches will be needed.
4. A company registered in multiple States may require unified view of all branches in one screen,
5. GST professionals will need some specific applications to manage and undertake GST compliance activities for their client Tax payers from one dashboard, etc.
Abo
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Track status of return/tax ledger/cash ledger etc. using unique Application Reference Number (ARN) generated on GST Portal.
* File application for refund etc.
* Status review of return/tax ledger/cash ledger
Q 15. What will be the role of tax officers from State and Central Govt in respect of the GST system being developed by GSTN?
Ans. The officers will use information/ application submitted by taxpayer on GST Portal for following statutory functions:
* Approval/rejection for enrollment/registration of taxpayers;
* Tax administration (Assessment / Audit /Refund / Appeal/ Investigation etc.);
* Business Analytics, MIS and other statutory functions.
Q 16. Will GSTN generate a unique identification for each invoice line in GSTN system?
Ans. No, GSTN will not generate any new identification. The combination of Supplier's GSTIN, Invoice no and Financial year will make each Invoice unique.
Q 17. Can invoice data be uploaded on day to day basis?
A
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liability ledger, ITC ledger etc. can be seen on a mobile phone using compatible browsers.
Q 20. Will GSTN provide separate user ID and password for GST Practitioner to enable them to work on behalf of their customers (Taxpayers) without requiring user ID and password of taxpayers, as happens today?
Ans. Yes, GSTN will be providing separate user ID and Password to GST Practitioner to enable them to work on behalf of their clients without asking for their user ID and passwords. They will be able to do all the work on behalf of taxpayers as allowed under GST Law.
Q 21. Will tax payer be able to change the GST Practitioner once chosen in above mentioned facility?
Ans. Yes, a taxpayer may choose a different GST Practitioner by simply unselecting the previous one and then choosing a new GST Practitioner on the GST portal.
Q 22. Will existing taxpayers under Central Excise or Service Tax or State VAT have to apply for fresh registration under GST?
Ans. No, the existing taxpayers
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tps://www.gst.gov.in/help
Q 23. What material will be provided by GSTN, on various aspects of working on GST portal, for the benefit of taxpayers?
Ans. GSTN is preparing Computer Based Training materials (CBT's) which have videos embedded into them for each process to be performed on the GST portal. These will be put on the GST portal as well as on the website of all tax authorities. Apart from CBT's, Various User Manuals, FAQ's etc., will also be placed on GST Portal for education of the taxpayers. Apart from it, a helpdesk has been set up for the taxpayers for logging of their tickets via mail (helpdesk@gst.gov.in) or phone (0124-4688999). CBT, FAQ and User Manual for enrolment process are available at https://www.gst.gov.in/help.
Q 24. Will the return and registration data furnished by the taxpayers on the GST Common Portal will remain Confidential?
Ans. Yes, all steps are being taken by GSTN to ensure the confidentiality of personal and business information furnished by the
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ats.
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Document 1
10101
Tax payers
Facility Center
Reps
Help desk
Tax Return
Preparers
Assist Tax payers in
return preparation
Self-register, Upload
details, file returns,
make online payment,
apply for refund etc
Тахраунг
Registration/
Return Processing/
Payment Collection/
Any other support
Help services
related to GST
System
Set up GST
system/operation and
maintenance of GST
system
State Tax
Authorities
Approval for
enrolment of tax
payers/Tax
administration
GST System
Functional
Audit/Accounting of
Tax payment
Decision Making
MIS/BI/Dashboar
ds/ Analytics
Reporting
Approval for
enrolment of
tax payers/Tax
administration
CBEC
Develop various
apps/interfaces
for users of GST
Tax payment
details
systern
Authentication
and eKYC
PAN/TAN/Tax
details
App Providers/Tax
filling portal providers
Receipt of tax
payments/
Maintenance of
payment records
Income
tax/Customs/other
departments
GSTN
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