Thomson Reuters, a tax technology solution provider, is bringing to the Indian market an integrated tax solution specific for ‘India GST’, a top official said.
The first release of this product (by the name Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE indirect tax) will be in April, Chris Carlstead, Managing Director, Indirect Tax, Thomson Reuters told BusinessLine in an interview here.
Thomson Reuters is also looking to partner with GST Suvidha Partners to see if the latter could use ‘ONESOURCE’ to provide service to its clients, said Prashant Pillai, Head-Corporate Business, South Asia.
Pillai said that ‘ONESOURCE indirect taxes’ was an existing product that is already available in 189 countries and that necessary modifications have been brought to meet the needs of Indian market.
Carlstead, who was in the capital on Wednesday for a GST summit, said that Thomson Reuters has already planned successive iterative releases for ONESOURCE that will grow with the legislation.
“We will be in the market in April and continue to advance that integrated solution in coming months as more facts come about”, Carlstead said.
Carlstead said that tone for GST implementation is quite different now (as compared to June last year when he had visited India) and gives him the confidence that this tax reform will get ushered in from July 1 this year.
“You (India) are on cutting edge from technological standpoint and from the idea of automating transactions to provide more seamless ability for Governments to collect tax. This is the way most innovative countries are building”, he said.
At the same time, he also noted that process in terms of multiple registrations before multiple State-level authorities may look “burdensome”, but should rather be seen as the “nature of the beast”.
The only thing that is a bit unique about India is that most countries generally offer time to prepare and become compliant –they first pass all the legislations and give more time to reach the target dates that is say 18 or 24 months into the future.
“That’s not the case here in India. Maybe that will prove itself to be the right approach. This introduces businesses an opportunity to look at how best to leverage technology to meet business goals”.
Carlstead suggested that Government could look at easing the transition burden for businesses in India by waiving off penalties and interest for certain period of time; allow joint filings (instead of filing for say August allow it to be combined for say two months). These could be some relief to businesses, he said
Pillai said that GST is one of top two priorities for Thomson Reuters in India and it is part of the global strategic plan for India.
“Given the focus, investments and efforts we are making in India, we sense this (GST) is not a three months opportunity. But we look at it as a 36 months opportunity”, Pillai added.
As a tax solution, ‘ONESOURCE’ helps clients undertake determination of taxes and feed into compliance piece of software, he said.