The first day of the online registration for the Goods and Services Tax (or GST) has not gone smoothly. The portal for it, which was launched by the Union government, both failed to open until 2:00 p.m. on Sunday and was not accepting the One Time Password (or OTP), which was a requirement for the registration.

Therefore, many complaints from the users arose about how the biggest indirect tax reform was marred by critical technical glitches.

This registration is necessary for doing business in the regime of the GSST since this portal must contain both the monthly sales data as well as file return forms.

According to The Indian Express, activist Ajay Jagga faced several issues in trying to fix the new system.

Since this portal was only for new entrants, there were no existing traders to contact the local authorities.

Jagga wrote to the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, for an appraisal on the issues. Afterwards, he also called the helpline number several times, which turned out to be constantly busy.

Even when his call was finally answered, it was to find that the site would be closed for another half an hour, due to a problem that they were facing.

The government will have to offer relaxation for the newly entering traders in response to these technical issues, says Anil Vohra, the president of the Chandigarh Beopar Mandal. He further expresses how there is a lot of confusion for everyone in this new system, with this only further complicating and multiplying matters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed how this new program will be a turning point in the country’s economy and has reviewed the preparation for the release of the GST at the beginning of next month.

In making sure to correct these initial errors, the government is hoping to make this new tax success in turning the Indian economy around.

Image Credit: Tiven Gonsalves / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Reference: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GST_India.png