GSTN ropes in 39 more companies including Zoho, Paynear as Suvidha providers

The GST Network, the agency in charge of the technological infrastructure for the Goods and Services Tax regime, has selected 39 more companies to become GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs).
Companies like Zoho Corporation, Paynear as well as consulting bigwigs PwC and KPMG have made the cut this time.

This will help the 90 lakh registered taxpayers for GST to route their invoices to the central GSTN database through more channels and help create a more competitive pricing environment.

A GSP has to develop technology solutions for taxpayers and other stakeholders to help connect to the GST systems for compliance, starting from registration of the entity to uploading of invoice details and filing returns.

In the first phase, GSTN had shortlisted 34 companies including EY, Deloitte, Tata Consultancy and Reliance Corporate IT Park to become GSPs. The selection of the new GSPs comes even as the GSTN has faced criticism after taxpayers faced glitches on the portal, which had forced the government to extend the due date for filing of returns.

GSTN had last month listed 69 companies for the final round of demos and presentations from 160 applications. Interestingly, HDFC Bank, which owns a stake in GSTN, remained absent despite being shortlisted for demos. It would have been the first bank to become a GSP if it had been selected. The others who were selected to be GSPs in the second batch include CSC e-Governance Services, Compare Infobase, Taxspanner, Adaequare and Gamut Infosystems.