GST Is Not Really A Tax Problem But A Technology Issue

GST compliance is the hot issue with most organizations in India. And SAP has a major role to help organizations become GST-ready as most of them use SAP ERP or other applications. To understand how SAP is helping customers adopt GST-ready applications, Dataquest had a tetea-tete with Deb Deep Sengupta, President and Managing Director, SAP India

- Ibrahim Ahmad

As digital India has become a buzzword presently in India, how do you see transformation in various industries?

The digital transformation is now opening up to a lot more industries in the ecosystem. We are hearing quite a bit about security from some time now. So therefore, security is going to be very critical; especially for a country like India where the mindset is not process and policy oriented. Other than that, the new tax regime is giving a huge push to the Government’s Digital India campaign. Micro, small and medium enterprises will all have to digitise their processes. More taxpayers are to come into the fold of the formal economy and move on to digital modes of payment.

We are seeing a lot of action in the market from large established and well-known technology companies to SMEs due to GST. how do you think it will impact everybody?

I think everybody knows the long-term impact of GST because it is going to increase India’s tax net. Secondly, it will make systems more transparent. As new policies that come up, there will be a lot of operatives involved. Companies that have a consistent strategy and which can support their clients and customers on a consistent basis will only be able to survive. Otherwise, they’ll just wither away. I guess it is good in a way - at least it creates awareness. Then it is for these organizations to be able to figure out whether they can sustain and whether it’s an opportunity they would want to pursue. In my opinion, whenever one market policy such as GST is rolled out, most companies aim to become compliant. The biggest advantage of GST, other than at a macro level, even at an organizational level is that it will give companies the opportunity to redesign their supply chain.