Infosys is under pressure from the Centre to fix the technical glitches in the GST Network (GSTN) even as traders have threatened to move court if no action is taken against the company. The software company has built the technology network for GST and is also responsible for maintaining it.
The Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, which was formed to look into the issue, recently found that the company could not fix all 27 technical glitches, which were communicated to the Infosys.
Following this, Infosys has added 100 engineers for the project in the last one month, said a source. Besides, the company has deployed 30 resident engineers all over the country to coordinate between the state governments and GSTN. The GSTN has launched a facility for businesses to make changes to their August and September return forms.
The company has been asked to develop taxpayer friendly utilities so that they are interactive in nature. Every utility should have the option for preview, edit, validation, specific error messages and print, the company has been asked.
Sources said the GoM was informed that the company was trying its best and that some glitches were surfacing because of changes made by the GST Council.
However, the company is not sharing details about its plan as to how it proposes to tackle the issue. A company spokesperson refused to divulge details when The Sunday Guardian sought response. Infosys had won the Rs 1,380 crore contract to implement the GSTN and maintain it for five years in September 2015.
Meanwhile, trade body Confederation of All India Traders which had earlier demanded a CBI enquiry into as to why the company failed to provide an efficient portal, has now threatened to move court if action is not against the company. The CAIT said it fails to understand why no action is being taken against Infosys and other companies who have taken the contract of GST portal. The traders’ body has alleged that Infosys came up with a lame excuse and declining that there was something wrong with the GSTN.
“If no immediate action is taken against Infosys, it will have no other alternative left but to take shelter of the court of law to intervene in the matter and while identifying the culprits award then suitable punishment for non-performance and wastage of public money,” said CAIT convenor Praveen Khandelwal.