Thursday 25 October 2018

PORTAL PROBLEMS FOR TAXPAYERS/TAX CONSULTANTS

GST being a totally online based taxation. GST Portal is the real Backbone of GSTIN. It is the real time interface for Government officers, Tax consultant and Tax payers. Enough has been discussed about problems with GST Portal at every level. Unfortunately, even after 16 months, portal is not stabilized and is turning into a difficulties for Tax payers and Tax consultant.
Currently, while checking portal for compliance and matching of data for Year 2017-18, we are still facing the following major issues which need to be resolved on a war footing :
i) GST Matching (GSTR -1 and GSTR-2 A)  : More than 1000 grievance tickets have been logged since October 2017 (Nearly one year) that mapping of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2A is incorrect on portal. E.g. Supplier (A) has filed his GSTR-1 for July 2017 in time. But Receiver of goods/Customer (B) is not able to take credit as “NO” is displayed against Supplier (A) in GSTR-2A of B. Complete ITC data is to be auto populated in yearly return and B cannot take ITC because of Portal mistake / mapping. First grievance was logged on 14.10.2017 and tickets are closed citing irrelevant explanations.
ii) Non Display of Input Tax Credit in Electronic Credit Ledger  : Registered Person (RP) has filed all his returns for 9 months of 2017-18. But while downloading Electronic Credit ledger from portal, one month ITC is not displayed. This mean, he is deprived of his Tax credit for that month. No answer from GST IT team.
iii) Data in different TAB’s in GSTR -3 B are blank when downloaded from Portal   :       RP has uploaded GSTR-3 B for 9 months with relevant data. To reconcile the data when RP is downloading GSTR-3B from portal, in some returns TAB 3.1(Details of Outward supplies) and TAB 4 (Eligible ITC) are blank. In other return/s, TAB 6 (Payment of TAX) is blank. How can he reconcile the data?
iv) Data on GSTR - 2A (Portal) and Data on Excel Download sheet does not match  : Different data is displayed on GSTR-2A and Excel sheet (GSTR-2 A). RP are not able to decide which data is correct and how to proceed.
v) SCALABILITY of SERVER/NO RESPONSE at PEAK HOUR  : It is ridiculous that in 16 months, GST IT Service provider could not assess the load on GST Portal. For first year, we agreed with government that during Peak hour, load is huge and GST IT team need time to set right scalability problem. But after 15 months it is real shame for IT team. Mirror servers/Additional Servers/ Additional IT Infrastructure is needed on top priority in next 15 days.
vi) Online GSTR Yearly Return Forms (GSTR-9, 9A, 9C) not available on portal : On one side last date to claim ITC for Year 2017-18 is 25.10.2018 (Sep 2018 Return last date). On other side, yearly returns are not uploaded on Portal. We have seen that there are few changes/alteration in physical form (as issued by GST council) and online form. There are some interface changes which RP need to understand before filing relevant. We request for immediate upload of yearly return forms.
vii) Other Portal Related Issues : “Data mismatch”/“Data not showed”/“Irrelevant data Display”/ irregular behaviour of Portal at some time in any TAB, are few issues which cannot be categorized.