GSTN infrastructure upgraded to handle up to 300,000 users concurrently

The number of active taxpayer numbers have effectively doubled since the launch of GST at about 1.3 crore.

GST Network's infrastructure has been upgraded to handle up to 300,000 logged-in users at a time, GSTN said on Sunday.

Besides, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has introduced auto-populated sales return form GSTR-3B in PDF form which will be available from October 2020 tax periods onwards.

The complete PDF with auto-population of input tax credit will be available on the common portal (GSTN) from November 12, 2020, GSTN said in a statement.

GSTN said it has augmented the capacity of the gateway from 150,000 to 300,000 concurrent logged in taxpayers to handle the expected sharp surge in the indirect tax-related activities on the portal after easing of lockdown.

Further, the upgrade has enabled GSTN to handle and scale up to 500,000 concurrently logged-in taxpayers, if necessary, it added.

The number of active taxpayer numbers have effectively doubled since the launch of GST at about 13 million.

As per GSTN data, September 2020 witnessed a sudden jump in filing of GSTR-3B, the monthly return filed by normal taxpayers.

This surge was also due to the backlog in filing of previous months' returns for which relaxations were provided to taxpayers in view of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The subsequent month also saw increased traffic which was successfully handled by the GST portal, it said.

GSTN said detailed breakup of various tables of GSTR-1 (supply return) and GSTR-3B which have been used to auto-populate GSTR-3B have also been provided in the PDF.

In the first phase, system has started auto-populating details from GSTR-1 to GSTR-3B from July 2020 period onwards for all GSTR-1s filed after August 27, 2020, GSTN added.

"All taxpayers are requested to go through their GSTR-3B (PDF) and provide feedback (if any) on any aspect by raising a ticket on the self-service portal," GSTN said.

The GST Council, in its 39th meeting on March 14, had recommended adopting and implementing an incremental approach of linking the present system of filing of GSTR-3B and GSTR-1.