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Tring tring… GST Helpline? Uh, hold please…

Now that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has come into force, most of us have made a beeline for chartered accountants trying to decipher what this means for us. What is going to cost more now? Will eating at restaurants burn a hole in your pockets? Should you plan to buy a house? 

There are many such questions weighing on the minds of the aam aadmi since the the implementation of GST was announced back in March. Tax experts, lawyers and chartered accountants have become regular faces on business news channels. The past week saw most is not all news channels opening up their phone lines to take questions from viewers for the experts in their studio to answer.

Just like the aam janata, Newslaundry also had several queries on the new tax regime and how it will affect our lives, after all, don’t you want to know how it will affect your subscription? (Pay to keep news free!)

There are several helpline numbers available, set up by private organisations and public sector companies to answer any questions you would have on GST. But who better to answer any queries or concerns regarding the GST than the body that designed it, the Indian Government?

The helpline number under the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) was set up “to provide its services 24/7 to both ACES [Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax] and GST helpdesk requirements”. Dial toll free number 1800 1200 232 or 0120 488 8999 (chargeable) if you have any GST-related queries, whether you are a trader or an aam aadmi. One caveat, the second number only works between 8 am to 8pm, NOT 24/7. 

Well, we had several questions, and so we called the helpline. We began by calling the toll free number, only to realise that the number does not even connect. This isn’t the first time, the helpline has been criticised—on June 26, several traders faced problems registering themselves on the GST portal, often complaining that the number was “busy most of the time”. 

Fret not. There is another number to reach out to, but chargeable. Perfect, it might actually even tell us how much the call would now cost under the new system.

When we tried the number, we were excited about fact that the call was connected and asked for language options (English and Hindi). Well, that feeling didn’t last long. “Thank you for your patience, our next representative will be available with you shortly,” said the automated voice from the other side. We tried calling several times throughout the day with little success in actually reaching this mysterious representative. In fact ,we were on hold for 30 minutes at one point! (We were on hold the entire time it took to write this [Editor’s note: This is a very slow writer]).

Ironically, other helpline numbers set up by private companies do work. Newslaundry also tried other helpline numbers. Software development company KDK Softwares, set up a helpline number in January in six languages—English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Gujarati. While it is great that the helpline executives exist and answer your queries, it is a little disheartening, not to mention forbidding that the architect of GST is unreachable. In fact we asked one of these companies why they had set up a helpline of their own to be told “We took initiative to help you because the government helpline wasn’t working properly.” (Properly isn’t quite the word we would use, but fair).

Given that the entire country is currently anxious about the implementation and execution of GST, what we actually want to ask is— How many people are actually manning this helpline? We suppose, one could tweet to @askGST_GoI or email helpdesk@gst.gov.in or cbecmitra.helpdesk@icegate.gov.in, but they don’t seem to guarantee swift or detailed responses.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @shrutimenon10.

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