Making Filing Returns Easier With SahiGST

With its ASP platform, SahiGST, trade financing company, Vayana Network, is helping 500 plus GST practitioners to file the returns of their 10,000 clients across India every month said RN Iyer, CEO and Founder, Vayana Network to Aparajita Gupta in an interview.

You provide ASP services under the brand name SahiGST. Kindly elaborate on the product.

SahiGST is a cloud-based GST compliance (GST Return filing) software. It has been designed by experts with immense experience in the domains of Taxation and Technology and covers most types of GST returns, which are required to be filed by SMEs and Corporates. SahiGST is powered by one of the largest GSP in the country - Vayana GSP for providing last mile connectivity to GSTN.

What are the problems people usually face while filing GST? Also, how is SahiGST helping customers in resolving these problems?

The problems that are faced by SMEs and GST practitioners in filing returns can be categorised into two broad categories -

Reconciliation - Correct data filing is the most critical task in the GST regime since it paves a way for seamless flow of input tax credit and reduction of notices. Today, the GST regime has more or less stabilised and authorities are sending notices to assessees based on their incorrect ITC claims.

SahiGST's robust reconciliation engine helps people to identify beforehand their correct ITC claim. Several reconciliations have been integrated into SahiGST software to cross-examine accounting books (Purchase Register) with GST returns (GSTR 2A) in real-time.

Annual return filing (GSTR 9) - The annual return is a large and tedious return and is a consolidation of the monthly returns filed by businesses during the last year.  People are facing issues such as mismatches between their books and returns filed. Also, the auto-population of data in GSTR 9 is difficult to match with the tax credits. SahiGST helps SMEs in seamless filing of GSTR 9 and take away their GST woes.

How many customers have you facilitated so far in filing GST return?

With our ASP platform, SahiGST we are helping 500 plus GST practitioners to file the returns of their 10,000 clients across India every month. The Vayana GSP, has evolved as one of the largest in the ecosystem based on number of filings, with over 1,000 large corporates and institutions, 100 plus ASPs, several other fintechs and lakhs of GSTINs filing with the GSTN through us. Vayana has ensured a near zero downtime API service to over 250,000 GSTINs.

How do you facilitate trade financing between corporates and supply chains?

Vayana Network enables corporates and their counterparties to create and capture their entire receivable and payable trades electronically from their ERP or Accounting systems and finance them through banks and financial institutions in an automated manner. With our financing partners providing better rates at minimal collateral, businesses are able to make and receive payments improving their liquidity. 

Vayana’s closed-loop networks support all forms of trade flows and documents to enable real time financing of B2B trades, both domestic as well as cross-border. Our proprietary cloud-based technology is architected to keep the end experience very simple for the users. Enterprises require no investments in technology and see no change in their current processes to use Vayana Network. Vayana provides transaction level reconciliation, alerts and smart reports to all stakeholders allowing for more accurate cashflow forecasting. 

How much trade finance have you enabled so far and in which sectors?

Vayana Network is a supply chain financing network with nearly $3 billion in financing till date. Today, it spans across 25 states, 300 cities and 850 plus pin codes in India; and continues to expand to global markets including the US and Singapore; and 20 other countries. 

Our programs are active across 20 plus sectors including auto and auto-components, petroleum, steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, fresh produce and retail, electricals, electronics, textile and garments and hospitality across 200 plus active supply chains.

What are the challenges that people face in trade financing usually?

Trade finance is the best risk-adjusted financing solution for MSMEs in corporate supply chains. It is a revolving short term credit with tenors usually ranging from 15-120 days with clear control on end-use of funds. Yet, it has not scaled up considerably, due to four major problems – 

- Restricted focus on large well-rated corporates and their top tier counter-parties 

- Emphasis on traditional paper-based underwriting and asset based due diligence

- Restricted coverage to the few locations and markets where banks and NBFCs have physical presence

- High friction and high engagement processes that lead to drop offs and lower utilisation over time.

These challenges are being addressed by fintech players like Vayana by collaborating with partner lenders and a combination of its tech stack and simplified services.