Infosys gets GSTN
ADDRESSING the Chief Commissioners' Conference, Mr. Navin Kumar, Chairman GSTN told the Chief Commissioners that GSTN is envisaged to be a pass through portal which will perform three key front-end functions namely Registration, Returns and Payment while statutory functions in relation to these processes and other functions will be performed at the backend module of the respective Central & State Governments. It was pointed out that GSTN will also be developing backend modules for 13 state governments and more states are expected to avail this facility in the future. As for the revenue aspect, it was informed that Cabinet had approved a self-sustaining revenue model wherein GSTN will levy user charges on tax-payers and tax authorities availing GST services. But after discussions in the Empowered Committee (EC) it was suggested that GSTN should derive its revenue from the payment of user charges by Central and State Governments respectively. As for the readiness of GSTN to handle its defined functions it was enunciated that RFP (Request for Proposal) had been issued by GSTN on 21st April 2015 and 5 bids were received from IT companies namely Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra & Microsoft. It was informed that the technical evaluation of the bids is in progress and selection is proposed to be finalised by end of August.
It is understood that they have finalized the bid yesterday and Infosys is the successful bidder for the Rs. 1320 Crore contract.