Industry leaders speak on their GST preparedness

HV Sheth, Sheth Printograph

Now that the dragon has knocked at the doors, no one has options but to gear up for the new tax regime GST. On our part, we are educating everyone in the organisation, from directors to accountants to finance to purchase department, through seminars, and practical recalculation of our costing. We have made our ERP GST compliance, taking all relevant details from vendors and customers. We are also understanding monthly return processes. Changeover from one tax system to another means lot of homework for stock in hand - raw material, semi and finished. Also, our whole business will be disrupted for another three months until everything falls in place.  We are still unaware of lot of things and complications which will arise in day to day working because no one is expert on this.

Vinay Kaushal, Provin Technos

Yes, we are ready for GST. As our company is very small, we didn't have to make any special software upgrade. We have got our persons updated on the systems and are working closely with our CA and sales tax consultant.

TP Bhasi, Mathrubhoomi

We are already on SAP. Our effort to migrate to GST is almost through, without any additional manpower.

IN Mittal, Naraian Printers

GST is going to be very difficult with the service industries. There will be 18% GST and the publishers will not give so much tax. Moreover, paper mills are not transferring there excise duty to the buyers. So we have to face difficult times.

Snehangshu Ganguly, NK Gossian

We are a user of normal multiuser Tally. But due to the implementation of GST, we are going for a customised ERP software which will throw exact data at any given point of time. Moreover, we have increased manpower and specially designated a store/stock management for both our companies - NK Gossain Printing Press and Libako Packaging. Initially, it will be a pain, but later I believe it will be beneficial.

Aditya Bhatt, Lustra Prints

As of now, we have upgraded our existing ERP services to make it GST-ready. We have also given our accounts team GST training sessions conducted by GSP providers. We have also had video conferencing with some of our clients for exchange of ideas and information. So far, we feel prepared but a tax reform of this scale is not without its own challenges.

Wafa Abbas, Amber Press

We were already using ERP. In 17 June, we upgraded to ERP multiuser system with some new computer systems. We are also hiring more persons in our account team. We are trying to improve our paper filing and record keeping systems.

Vijay Adlakha, Infinity Advertising Services

For GST, we have sent our accounts, purchase, stores and dispatch team for multiple training sessions and 24-hour training has been provided to each person. We have done our internal training twice for sales and purchase. We already have an ERP and our team has undergone trainings for changes in the ERP. We find this as an easy tax regime, but for the beginning we will have a few hiccups. For successful implementation of GST, internet and a knowledgeable team is needed and all departments need to be trained, not just finance.

Harjinder Sing, Swastik Printing Press

We have decided to invest in GST-compatible software. We had earlier decided to buy ERP software but since the GST was around corner and things were not clear about the rules related to GST, we thought it would be better to wait for the right time and invest only when things were absolutely clear.

DD Purkayastha, ABP

We run on SAP and we have upgraded it to make it GST compatible.

Rishabh Singhvi, IPP

We are working closely with our technology partner to upgrade our existing ERP with GST-specific tools. GST enablement involves understanding the GST legislation, building tax frameworks, user acceptance testing and then finally go live. We are hoping for seamless and convenient enablement of GST.

Jhuma Nag, Ved Printers

We are upgrading as well as hiring.

Pravesh Jain, Arihant Prakashan

We are already using ERP and we are with our GST compatible ERP system. We are ready with our new software.

Arund Gandhi of AS Print Aids

We are consulting with our sales tax and excise consultant. We don't have an ERP system but we do have an accounting system which is being upgraded to be GST compatible.