GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) or Applicant Service Provider (ASP)

To file or not to file GST Return, that is the question! The reality is Filing GST Return is not an option, it’s a requirement!

From July 2017, all businesses will need to file GST returns to the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) either via an ASP through to the registered and or via an authorized GST Suvidha Providers (GSP).

GSTN is a not for profit organisation owned by government and private players jointly, which acts as a clearing house for the Central and State governments to manage and rectify all GST transactions derived from businesses via the GSP or ASP. The automation process of the GSTN system is critically synchronizing data submitted from business and reconcile with data already collected from GSTN.

GSP and ASP are private entities to act as a gateway for GST data transactions from business source to GSTN.

GSPs are statutorily controlled and governed by GSTN having to sign the MOU for the direct connection and capability to transfer data to and from business. ASP takes services from GSP for connection and data transfer to GSTN via the GSP integrated connection gateway from the business source.

November 2016, GSTN opened for GSP registrations and offered 34 GSP licenses by February 2017 then later reopened for applications of GSP in April 2017 to accept further applications to widen the gateway service of collecting GST data.

The selection of GSP registrations has no barriers on what level of services the applicants currently provide but rather criteria is based on annual turnover over the past years. For majority of registered and approved GSPs, there is no history of Tax, electronic filing and or Information technology background. This means the primary duty and service of a GSP is to establish the gateway to transmit business data to GSTN.

There are numerous other specialist service software companies and these are considered as Applicant Service Provider (ASP) which takes data from business source to convert into GST Returns/GSTR ready for filing to GSTN via the GSP

Some GSP will also provide ASP services as an add on to their GSP gateway service or included the GSP cost to the software subscription fee.

As the selection of GSP registrations is restricted, majority of specialist software service providers are ASPs. So if you are using the accounting or related software to capture your GST data, check with your software service provider whether or not they are GST compliant and whether or not they are connected to a GSP for you to file GST reports direct to GSTN.

GovReports is an ASP service provider for both business tax payers and tax practitioners with inbuilt easy GST ledger features to enable for GST reports generation. So regardless of whether or not you use GST compliant accounting software, you can use GovReports to prepare and file GST reports to GSTN via a GSP.

For tax practitioners, if you provide bookkeeping and accounting services to manage the GST reporting on behalf of your clients, GovReports enables you to upload GST back up file from your clients accounting software to review, reconcile, request for authorization from your clients and submit for electronic filing to GSTN.