Archives October 2020

(01/05/2020)

Press Release
GSTN ensured ‘Business as Usual’ for GST Helpdesk amid Lockdown
– GST Helpdesk fully operational with regular hours 9-to-9 in all 12 serviced Languages
– Helpdesk transition from Office to Homes done in a secured manner
New Delhi, 1st May 2020: During lockdown, the GST Helpdesk was fully operational and running smoothly
through its Toll-free number from 9AM to 9PM serving in 12 languages. The Goods and Services Tax
Network (GSTN) with its Helpdesk service partner TechM created a secured virtual environment through
next generation and robust technology for their Helpdesk employees resolving GST queries. More than 65%
GST helpdesk agents out of total capacity worked from their homes.
In this catastrophic situation while almost every other helpdesk services were either completely
nonfunctional or were running on Interactive Voice Responses (IVRs), it was imperative to find out a solution
to ensure the services are provided to GST system taxpayers seamlessly. It was an exigent task to transition
the entire helpdesk resources working within office facilities, using fixed logistics to work from their homes.
GSTN directed TechM to plan for the transition way before the Lockdown was announced. The helpdesk and
support teams went through a series of hurdles including custom clearances, manually tagging the
machines, transferring the machines to agent’s homes and conducting multiple rounds of testing, etc. A
timely and effective planning ensured that the GST Helpdesk services were not affected even for a single
day making the helpdesk ‘Work From Home’ (WFH) precedent operating just like ‘Business As Usual’ (BAU).
Mr. Prakash Kumar, CEO-GSTN, underlining its significance expressed, “Generally Helpdesk or Call Centre
is synonymous with a large number of people seated in a room providing information to callers. The required
communication tools to manage the calls, route them to agents who speak a particular language or deal with
a particular business segment are the backbone of a Call Centre.”
“The entire model turned on its head by COVID-19 lockdown. Agents had to work from home, calls had to be
routed to them at their phone. All this had to be done in a secured manner. This was not a small job, but
necessity made GSTN and its tech partner TechM to do this. Today a good number of associates are providing
Helpdesk support to GST stakeholders. We would continue to work ensuring 360-degree safety of people and
process to combat the situation.”
GSTN today shared the Data on GST Helpdesk services. Over 56,690 Taxpayer issues were handled during
the first month of lockdown from 25th March till 24th April, 2020. The data also showed that more than
19552 tickets raised by taxpayers were resolved during this period. The highest number of tickets handled
in a day was 2766 and highest number of calls handled was 1776. However, due to the lock down, there is a
steep dip experienced in the call and ticket volume trend at GST helpdesk. The total received transactions
(Inflow of calls and GRP Tickets) are approximately 20% of the usual volume trend. Before the lockdown,
GST help desk would receive average around 8000 to 10,000 calls every day while around 2,000 tickets were
raised on GRP portal on a daily basis.
Ms. Karuna Chandila, VP Customer Services, GSTN told that, “We have tried to create a perfect balance
between Employee safety and Business Continuity during Covid19 epidemic. We have been able to close over
10904 tickets at first level (L1) and resolved more than 8648 tickets at L2 which works on more complex
technical issues. Extraordinary time calls for extraordinary measures, the team stood up to the challenge,
devised out of the box solution and got implemented.”
Mr. Sujit Bakshi, Cluster Head, TechM said, “We are privileged to serve the largest tax reform initiative
globally. I wish to record my special appreciation for GSTN who swiftly allowed us to work from home, even
before the lockdown was formally announced and continue supporting tax payers during this unprecedented
emergency. Lock down is not able to superimpose our passion to reach and support the taxpayers. This is
evident through our maintained First Call Resolution (FCR) score of 99.99% just like during regular business
days.”
Out of the twelve languages GST Helpdesk provides services to, the Hindi Helpdesk services received the
highest number of calls comprising 61.66% of the total call volume followed by English language with
14.80% volume. Marathi at 4.75% received third highest number of calls, closely followed by Gujarati 3.65%,
Telugu 3.00%, Bengali 2.93% and Tamil 2.86%. The other languages are Kannada, Punjabi, Oriya, Malayalam
and Assamese which registered lesser call volume respectively.
For GST Portal, the issues are reported through voice calls and the GRP portal. While most of the calls have
general queries for which on-call resolution is provided, however there are few technical queries for which a
ticket is raised either by the helpdesk agent or directly by the user on the Grievance Redressal Self-help
facility available at the GST Portal.
About GSTN:
Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a Section 8 (under new companies Act, not for profit companies are governed under section
8), non-government, private limited company. Instituted in March 2013, the Company has been set up primarily to provide IT
infrastructure and services to the Central and State Governments, tax payers and other stakeholders for implementation of the Goods
and Services Tax (GST).

Blocking and Unblocking of EWB generation facility at E-way Bill Portal

(01/12/2019)

No E-Way Bill Generation for Non-GST Payers from 1st December
– Blocking and Unblocking of EWB generation facility activated
– If GSTR-3B is not filed for 2 months, EWB generation gets blocked
New Delhi, 1st December, 2019: As per the decision of the GST Council, Goods and Services Tax Network
(GSTN) has activated the Blocking and Unblocking facility of E-Way Bill (EWB) generation on the E-Way Bill
Portal from 1st December 2019.
Taxpayers who have not paid their GSTR-3B for two months i.e. for the month of September and October,
the EWB generation for their GSTIN (whether as consigner or consignee) would get blocked from 1st
December, 2019. Once blocked, the EWB generation for such GSTIN could not be processed either through
supplier, recipient and even transporter.
Once the Return is filed on GST Portal, the blocking status is removed by the system, next day.
Restoration of EWB generation could be done by the Jurisdictional Officer on the GST Portal by Unblocking
the service. When a Taxpayer files the pending GSTR-3B return, their default period would be reduced to
less than 2 months and the same status would be updated on the EWB Portal. Then the Jurisdictional
Officer can unblock the EWB generation facility on the GST Portal upon considering the manual
representation received from such taxpayer.
This will not have any impact to the already generated e-way bills, on which goods are in transit even if the
GSTIN of the associated gets blocked. The e-way bills generated before 1st of December 2019 are valid and
can be used to move goods to the destination.
Mr. Prakash Kumar, CEO-GSTN said, “As part of increasing GST compliance, we have activated the blockingunblocking facility for E-Way Bill generation as per Rule 138E of CGST/SGST Rules, 2017. We have been
sending alerts to the non-filers since August and now on the directions of GST Council, the generation of
EWB facility will get blocked.”
“Transporters who are enrolled only on E-Way Bill Portal and not registered on the GST Portal will not be
affected with this and could continue to do business as usual. This new change will impact only those who
are registered under GST and are required to file GSTR-3B.” Mr. Kumar further added.
After filing the GSTR-3B for default period, if the tax payer wants to generate the e-way bills immediately,
then they can login to the e-way bill portal and select the option ‘Search > Update Block Status’ > Enter
their GSTIN and check the status.
If their GSTIN is still shown as blocked, then they can use update option to get the latest filing status from
the GST Common Portal. If their return filing default period reflects as less than two, their return filing
status will be communicated by GST System to E Way Bill Portal. Such blocked GSTIN will get unblocked and
their E Way Bill generation facility will be restored on EWB Portal.
If the issue is not resolved, Taxpayers may contact the GST helpdesk and raise a grievance at 0120-4888999.
About GSTN:
Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a Section 8 (under new companies Act, not for profit companies are governed under
section 8), non-government, private limited company. Instituted in March 2013, the Company has been set up primarily to provide IT
infrastructure and services to the Central and State Governments, tax payers and other stakeholders for implementation of the
Goods and Services Tax (GST).

(30/05/2020)