New Delhi: Describing GST rollout “a hell of a challenge”, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka on Thursday acknowledged that there are pockets of weak preparedness, but there is still time to address them before the April 2017 deadline.
“There are many pockets where there is weak preparedness at this moment. But we have time between now and then, and the government is extremely keen to address that (weakness),” Mr Sikka said when asked about the preparedness for the launch.
He on Thursday made a presentation to Finance minister Arun Jaitley and senior officials of the ministry on GST Network (GSTN) and the road map for its operationality, a ministry tweet said.
“There are lots of moving parts. It is going to be a hell of a challenge. We know it is worrying sitting back there, but we are going to be ready,” Mr Sikka said.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has been critical of GSTN as a majority 51 per cent stake lies with the private sector and the government remains a minority partner.
Asked about the key challenges for the GST rollout, he said there are issues around technology and cultural readiness and Infosys is taking some world-class measures to ensure the GST IT framework is a secure one.
The software behemoth in September 2015 was tasked with the job of building the IT infrastructure for the new indirect tax regime.
