As the July 1 deadline for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout draws closer, companies working to be service-providers are readying a plethora of value-add niche products and services to help potential clients make the transition to the new regime.
The competition between these companies is intensifying as India gets ready for the electronic upload of more than 2 billion invoices onto the GST Network (GSTN). A result of this competition is that it would give taxpayers many choices apart from the main government portal, and ease the compliance process
Explaining how this works, Pramod Varma, advisor to GSTN, says: “The GSTN, the main agency in charge of the technological infrastructure for GST, is a big shift from the (existing) government (model of) building out a monolithic portal for all taxpayers.” This is a platform on which other companies can innovate and compete to make a range of final solutions for end-users.
Around 34 companies from accounting firms like EY and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, to software companies like IRIS Business Services and Tally Solutions have been appointed as GSTN Suvidha Providers (GSP), which means that they can directly connect to the APIs (application programming interface) of GSTN.
There are also several independent application developers and startups like ClearTax and Moglix as well as multinationals like Intuit vying to be Application Service Providers (ASPs) to the GSPs. The ASP innovations can be part of the Suvidha Providers’ offerings, when the GSPs open up their secure APIs to them.
All these players are looking to carve out a niche with their products as competition builds up.
“Wherever you have a lot of transactions and need to do reconciliation, the difference between GSPs will come in terms of the functionality – how feature-rich you are, and (their) domain expertise in tax,” said Jaskiran Bhatia, partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
The GSTN is set to open the gates for the next batch of GSPs. Accounting firms have captive clients like large corporate taxpayers who need help to migrate to the GST regime. PwC and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu are bringing their global technology experience to play for this. Their global footprint and existing solutions outside India have worked as a reference point to build solutions here. PwC, for instance, has the experience of designing software in Europe where VAT (value added tax) is prevalent.
“We are using a similar solution, carrying out significant customisation that has been done to address local requirements,” said Kunal Wadhwa, partner, indirect taxes, PwC India. “The system has artificial intelligence which will learn to correct mismatches and guide the client on a potential solution. It will also do legal vetting on the basis of parameters and rules,” he added.
Meanwhile, EY and Spice Digital will offer a solution as a GSP and ASP. This approach will give security assurance for clients to engage with only one service provider for all their filings. “Our integrated platform provides seamless services of GST compliance through secure data reporting by a single service provider,” said Harishanker Subramaniam, national leader for indirect tax services, EY.
Spice Digital chief executive Saket Agarwal is gunning for approximately 10% of the market in the first year with his company’s integrated solution. As a software company, Tally has one million customers, mostly SMEs. Its team is sure to grow market share, as pirated software users will be compelled to move to GSTN.
For income tax-filing startup ClearTax, the experience in the tax domain is an advantage in its role as an ASP, said CEO Archit Gupta. “We get a unique advantage since we operate for CAs, SMEs and large enterprises. We have scaled as an income-tax filing company.
This is a big vantage po int,” Gupta said. “Our focus is on making the software intelligent, so as to take an interpretation on the tax law.” It has a system for auto-scaling, which involves varying server availability to cope with demand, he added. Another ASP, the Ratan Tata-backed B2B ecommerce marketplace Moglix, is focusing on the manufacturing industry.
Source : The Economic Times
The competition between these companies is intensifying as India gets ready for the electronic upload of more than 2 billion invoices onto the GST Network (GSTN). A result of this competition is that it would give taxpayers many choices apart from the main government portal, and ease the compliance process
Explaining how this works, Pramod Varma, advisor to GSTN, says: “The GSTN, the main agency in charge of the technological infrastructure for GST, is a big shift from the (existing) government (model of) building out a monolithic portal for all taxpayers.” This is a platform on which other companies can innovate and compete to make a range of final solutions for end-users.
Around 34 companies from accounting firms like EY and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, to software companies like IRIS Business Services and Tally Solutions have been appointed as GSTN Suvidha Providers (GSP), which means that they can directly connect to the APIs (application programming interface) of GSTN.
There are also several independent application developers and startups like ClearTax and Moglix as well as multinationals like Intuit vying to be Application Service Providers (ASPs) to the GSPs. The ASP innovations can be part of the Suvidha Providers’ offerings, when the GSPs open up their secure APIs to them.
All these players are looking to carve out a niche with their products as competition builds up.
“Wherever you have a lot of transactions and need to do reconciliation, the difference between GSPs will come in terms of the functionality – how feature-rich you are, and (their) domain expertise in tax,” said Jaskiran Bhatia, partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
The GSTN is set to open the gates for the next batch of GSPs. Accounting firms have captive clients like large corporate taxpayers who need help to migrate to the GST regime. PwC and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu are bringing their global technology experience to play for this. Their global footprint and existing solutions outside India have worked as a reference point to build solutions here. PwC, for instance, has the experience of designing software in Europe where VAT (value added tax) is prevalent.
“We are using a similar solution, carrying out significant customisation that has been done to address local requirements,” said Kunal Wadhwa, partner, indirect taxes, PwC India. “The system has artificial intelligence which will learn to correct mismatches and guide the client on a potential solution. It will also do legal vetting on the basis of parameters and rules,” he added.
Meanwhile, EY and Spice Digital will offer a solution as a GSP and ASP. This approach will give security assurance for clients to engage with only one service provider for all their filings. “Our integrated platform provides seamless services of GST compliance through secure data reporting by a single service provider,” said Harishanker Subramaniam, national leader for indirect tax services, EY.
Spice Digital chief executive Saket Agarwal is gunning for approximately 10% of the market in the first year with his company’s integrated solution. As a software company, Tally has one million customers, mostly SMEs. Its team is sure to grow market share, as pirated software users will be compelled to move to GSTN.
For income tax-filing startup ClearTax, the experience in the tax domain is an advantage in its role as an ASP, said CEO Archit Gupta. “We get a unique advantage since we operate for CAs, SMEs and large enterprises. We have scaled as an income-tax filing company.
This is a big vantage po int,” Gupta said. “Our focus is on making the software intelligent, so as to take an interpretation on the tax law.” It has a system for auto-scaling, which involves varying server availability to cope with demand, he added. Another ASP, the Ratan Tata-backed B2B ecommerce marketplace Moglix, is focusing on the manufacturing industry.
Source : The Economic Times