GST portal doubles capacity handling from 1.5 lakh logged in users to 3 lakh concurrently

In strengthening the Goods and Service Tax (GST) infrastructure, the GST Network portal has been enabled to handle double the taxpayer traffic for return filings. The GST website has upscaled the capacity from 1.5 lakh to 3 lakh people concurrently using the site. 

"The GSTN Portal now successfully handles almost double the taxpayer traffic for return filing immediately after lockdown. It has been made possible as the GST infra has been upgraded to handle up to three lakh concurrent logged-in users at a time," according to an official statement.

Moreover, the upgrade in the system has also enabled the website to scale up to 5 lakh users logging in simultaneously, if required. 

"The GST eco-system is future-ready to offer a seamless experience to the taxpayers with its augmented capacity even beyond the current load limits. Taking the surge during the peak filing into consideration, GSTN also took on the performance and stress testing of GST System applications that helped identify and remove bottlenecks in the software," the official statement further said.

"It is noteworthy to mention that the number of active taxpayer numbers has effectively doubled since the launch of GST at approximately 1.3 crore. This surge was due to the backlog in the filing of previous months' returns for which relaxations were provided to the taxpayers in view of the Covid-19 outbreak," as per the official statement.

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Increased GST collections in October

In a major economic boost for the country amid the COVID-19 crisis, GST collections crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark in October. It may be noted that the revenue collections from the GST touched its highest level so far this fiscal in September at Rs 95,480 crore. The gross GST revenue collected in the month of October 2020 is Rs 1,05,155 crore of which CGST is Rs 19,193 crore, SGST is Rs 5,411 crore, IGST is Rs 52,540 crore (including Rs 23,375 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 8,011 crore (including Rs 932 crore collected on import of goods).

The Centre on November 2 released the second tranche of its pending GST compensation to 16 states and 3 Union Territories (UTs) transferring Rs 6000 crores under the 'Special Window to States for meeting the GST Compensation Cess shortfall'. The Centre had released the first tranche on October 24, transferring Rs 6000 crores to the states and UTs amid shortfall.

(Image: PTI)

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