“GST Saarthi will make LIFE easier for MSMEs”

Ankit Agarwal, MD, Alankit, a GST Suvidha Provider talks about simple solutions for smaller businessmen who haven’t yet adopted technology enabled modes of transactions.

What is your post GST traction and customer base?

After the implementation of the new tax regime, we have been approached by various taxpayers and consultants from various segments with their requirement of a one-stop solution for Return Filing. Further, many of the corporates have also approached us for a seamless flow of Data from their accounting packages to GSTN via GST Muneemji, the secure cloud-based solution developed for tax professionals. Moreover, our customer base includes many of the Software Companies who have developed their software solutions and are willing to avail the services of Alankit as GSP. We have secured approx 5000 clients belonging to SMB’s and non-SMBs. Both our Models, GST for Bharat i.e. for SMB’s and GST for India for Corporates and Larger Entities are on boom post implementation of GST.

What are the solutions and services?

GST has overhauled the entire taxation machinery and businesses across sectors. There are many corporates who have a great understanding and ability to evaluate various solutions in the market and choose the best one for effective compliance for their business with respect to the changes seen post-GST. But, there are some businesses who are still stuck in the state of flux. We have solutions for all types of businesses to seamlessly help them to get on the GST wagon.

GST Muneemji

GST Muneemji is a cloud-based software and a one-stop solution for all the taxpayers and tax professionals in various sectors for all of their compliance needs. The subscription to the software has been made free until the end of the current financial year for any GSTIN number. This solution ensures smooth GST implementation, reliability and caters to the need of various organizations whether big or small. GST Muneemji is a complete solution for tax professionals/ taxpayers. It allows them to upload data in any format which automatically adjusts to the compliance mechanism. The data is also stored for a period of 8 years which will help them comply with annual returns as well. Its features help in reducing the cost of compliance for all sorts of businesses:

• Allows a quick management system such as Instant notifications on invoice mismatch
• Invoice validation of various vendors
• Integrated view of filings
• Bulk uploading of invoices
• Tax Ledger Reconciliation
• Integration with Accounting systems
• Provides summarization of the input tax credit balance available to you at any moment, uploading returns, no charges for e-signs for 37 returns and auto-populates & prepares the return in the upload format.

GST Saarthi

GST Saarthi is a PoS machine which helps GST traders to prepare bills, help SMBs get on board, take payments through Cards/Aadhar biometrics. GST Saarthi has a mobile set up that can be installed in the office of the employer which helps ITP to save time in completing this formality. The system will then issue a UID no. to ITP. The uniqueness is determined based on the comparison of fingerprint properties registered for other ITPs in the system.

22 City Evangelization Drive

We have conducted an all India GST evangelization drive across 22 major cities to spread awareness and get businesses on-board with GST. In these events, Alankit experts along with industry veterans like GSTN representatives, industry body representatives etc. address SMEs and MSMEs on various aspects of GST and resolve their queries. These seminars are live webcast on our social media page Alankitofficial so that larger audience may utilize valuable information for their benefit.

What are the challenges that you are facing?

GST has countered various issues such as a multiplicity of taxes at Central and State level, lack of uniformity, tax on tax, and tax cascading. Businesses will be impacted positively as by having a common national market, disputes between manufacturing and processes will get eliminated. Processes will get more streamlined, and various cumbersome tasks would be shortened and improvised. The penetration of automation and minimization of a human interface has also led to a reduction in tax evasion, bringing in greater transparency.

We believe that it will boost the economic structure of our economy and act as a catalyst to establish an organized sector under one nation one tax structure. But we believe that this paradigm shift from previous tax structure to this new GST regime will impact the overall economy. Major problems faced by tax professionals/payers is the shift from the previous tax regime and carry forward the input credits into the GST regime. Another challenge is the lack of substantial understanding and awareness amongst people regarding the important aspects of GST and its compliance solution. As with any new system, it takes time to establish. There might be teething issues at first, however, what is more, important is to appreciate the long-term benefits it will provide to businesses and individuals alike.

What are your plans for MSME?

For MSME, we are creating awareness about GST and its various important aspects through Seminars and also we have developed a Billing and Inventory Management Solution, named GST Saarthi, that will act as a one-stop solution for all GST Related problems. Earlier billing was done manually, but post-GST things have gone through a vast shift with technology playing a major role in GST compliance.

This tectonic shift has made it important for businesses to ride on the strength of technology by automating their manual systems in order to have a seamless interface with the GSTN server. Alankit took the initiative to introduce a POS (point of sale) device for smaller businessmen who haven’t yet adopted technology enabled modes of transactions, both for the purpose of payments and financial bookkeeping. This device, when connected to the internet, would transfer all transactions data onto the ASP platform for easy record keeping and further processing of invoices as per GST guidelines. Even when the device is offline, it would record transactions for easy transmission later.