Business and financial software company Intuit Inc, which sells and develops financial, accounting and tax preparation software for SMBs globally, is looking at doubling its revenues in the Indian market post roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the first of July this year.

The Palo Alto-based company with a global revenue of $4.5 billion is betting big on the Indian market as it gets ready for GST.

The company’s cloud-based accounting software QuickBooks already has a large number of companies on board that will start using the software from day one. Nikhil Rungta, Managing Director at Intuit India, told BusinessLine , “We believe that with GST coming in, it will be a forcing function in getting Indian businesses to get compliant and digital. As of today 9 million businesses are filing VAT and Service Tax, we expect that number to increase by 50 per cent post GST and that creates a big opportunity for Intuit to double its growth in India in the next 12-18 months.”

He, however, did not divulge the financials of the India unit.

QuickBooks, a cloud-based accounting software for small businesses, is a global product and Intuit India is trying to bring in the learnings from other GST-compliant markets and see how the product can be used for the Indian markets. It enables businesses to stay on top of their business in real time and get paid faster.

Three-pronged strategy

“We have created a three-pronged approach on helping small businesses get GST by educating, empowering and making it easy for them to file their taxes,” Rungta said.

Intuit QuickBooks has knowhow of GST roll out in other countries (Australia, Malaysia and the UK) across the world and they hence understands the problems and issues that a business will face with the GST implementation. The company also has launched ‘Find an Accountant’ directory with businesses can connect with a Certified Accountants who understand GST and it impact, Rungta said, adding that this is first-of-its-kind directory or matchmaking service in India with over 600 certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors registered on this platform.

“With just few weeks away from the GST rollout, businesses are getting worried about what impact the tax structure is likely to have on their businesses. There is lot of fear and apprehension among the SMBs and we are trying to solve those issues with our product QuickBooks. We are also providing online training to the businesses and helping them in their navigation to GST,” Rungta said.

He added that, “Of the 51 million SMBs present in the Indian market, about 20 per cent are somewhat digital-savvy so even if we target this then also it translates into a great business opportunity.”

On impact, he said that not only the government is highly supportive of the digital and tax-compliant country, the businesses are also equally proactive and are ready to adopt solutions that would make their filings faster and in a convenient way.

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