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When the Government was targeting 3 Crore GST payers; GSTN settled for a Rented server based in Whitefield Bangalore having capacity of only 80000 access at one time whereas the requirement was to have a Server having capacity of 5 Lakh access at one time. The Jumbo Server similar to one being used by National Stock Exchange was required to be imported by GSTN. But Consultants to GSTN and even GSTN Team could not understand the basic requirement of Hardware and Software for running Network for uploading and matching data of a magnitude required for implementation of GST.

It was mismanagement by all stakeholders. Instead of GSTN opening Return Filing Facilitation Centres in all cities; the Officials were busy with TV Channels and Webinars. Even GSTN Head Office at Aero City in Delhi did not have a Service centre for Tax payers where they could go for resolution of their issues and get them resolved on the spot. Even FinMin and GST Commissioners failed to assess that need of hour was to open Return Filing Centres in all cities and the issues in filing of returns should have been resolved by the Team of GSTN Officers, Software Vendor and GST Officers on the spot. It was a hit and run by all with GST Officers being helpless in resolving the issues as they themselves did not have access to network. Without addition of all Service Tax, Central Excise & VAT Registrations; the TRAN-1 Form did not allow; transfer of transitional credit and showed message of “Processing Error”. Even the amendment in non-core fields of registration was not reaching the Desktop of GST Officers and they were not in a position to approve the amendment and the application showed the status as “Pending Validation”. But who will validate and how to get it validated was not known to anyone. Even no one knows who will approve the Provisional Registration into final registration and without approval of registration into final registration.

Though many were given GSP Licenses but even they were not given access by GSTN and were not of much help to filers.

The Government had to face the wrath of Tax Payers on social media who were unable to access the Portal which repeatedly crashed due to heavy traffic and was not capable for upload of huge data. GSTN Helpdesk did not even acknowledge the emails sent by Taxpayers. Everyone started to blame PM and Adhia but the responsibility was on GSTN Team to assess the requirement of Hardware and Software for smooth running of Network. The Team failed to assess the requirement and the Server crashed multiple times. It was wastage of National Time with entire country trying to access the server and only lucky few could upload the returns without any error.

The Network is not going to work on existing Server and a Jumbo Server is required to be imported well before the revised due date of GSTR3. It is wiser to dispense with all returns and to provide for filing of only GSTR3B till a compatible Server is imported.

It is not only Hardware but Software is also full of bugs. Many Tax payers who submitted returns Online several days ago; the status of their return even after a week is being shown as “under process”. Those who got error message are unable to generate Error file.

Consultants to GSTN who failed to assess Hardware and Software requirement should be blacklisted and the Team GSTN which was not capable of identifying the basic system requirement needs to be fired. Crores of Tax Payers money handed over to GSTN, National Time and Energy was wasted as those who were assigned the responsibility miserably failed in their task and let PM Modi down.

It is time for CEO of GSTN to own the responsibility and resign.