Despite Petya hit, Saint Gobain aims to start billing under GST on July 1

Firm moved its network swiftly to isolated mode, says none of its customers faced any difficulties

Glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain hopes to overcome the challenge posed by a ransomware attack on June 28, and start invoicing under GST on the very first day the new tax is implemented.

The company said the impact of the Petya ransomware attack on its global network had percolated to its Indian operations. However, its India network was taken into an isolated mode, and is currently back to near normalcy.

"We have had a challenging situation for the past two days, but were able to serve our customers. We met all the requirements needed for GST transition and tomorrow I hope to have a good day," said B Santhanam, president and managing director, Flat Glass-South Asia, Egypt and Malaysia, Saint-Gobain.

The company is working in isolated mode now, and has created sub networks within its isolated network in order to serve its customer needs. "I haven't had a single situation where the customer is facing a difficulty," Santhanam said.

There was no financial loss as the company's back-up, its ability to set up networks quickly and its strong disaster management system helped it respond better. The protocols it thought weren't ever going to be ever used, were the ones that actually came to its rescue.

"Our production and operations are continuing. Our despatch has now started to gear up. On despatch, there was a regrouping time, but now we are back to near normalcy and I would imagine that our first day with GST would be a good day where we sell strongly to our customers," Santhanam stated.

It stopped invoicing at 12 noon on June 30, and will reopen it, GST ready, at 12 midnight, to start invoicing under the new regime. He said that the new tax will bring in unparalleled transparency in billing and invoicing in the building material industry and would reduce grey practices in the sector.

The company expects its major capacity expansion to be completed by March, 2018. It is expanding its capacity from the current 1,400 tonnes of molten glass to 2,350 tonnes, up almost 65 per cent. The facility will also cater reasonably to exports, he added. The company is investing around Rs 1,100 crore for the current phase of expansion, he added.