Top 5 in fray to build GST Network

MUMBAI, INDIA: The top 5—TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Microsoft are in fray for a multi-crore mega project which, once rolled-out will smoothen the new indirect tax regime.

The five majors have bid for building the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) across the country.

GSTN is a company formed to connect databases of states with the Center and provide the information technology (IT) infrastructure for seamless implementation of GST.

"We have received five bids for building GSTN. We will finalize the bidder by August end," Navin Kumar, Chairman, GSTN, said at an interactive session organized by FICCI. He however, refused to name the bidders.

It must be noted that the government had floated the Request for Proposal (RFP) for setting up GSTN on April 21; July 6 was the closing date for bidding. It plans to implement GST which would subsume central excise, service tax and local levies, from April 1, 2016.

GSTN would help in PAN-based registration of traders, besides filing of tax returns and payment system.

Meanwhile, Kumar said that registration on GSTN would start by January 31, 2016 to prepare for a smooth roll out by April 2016.

"Payment and returns will follow months later, because the first return will be filed only in May," PTI said quoting Kumar.

For handling back-end operations, 13 states have approached GSTN for creating the IT platform, while rest of the 17 states are developing IT network on their own.