Industries – India Challenges

I’ve wasted several man days trying to get the DSC (digital signature) working in the GST portal. A few months back I spent a lot of time getting it working on Windows 10, on which I had specifically installed Google Chrome for this purpose. With all the automatic updates and changes, we could not get the DSC working again, since last week. I’ve been tinkering for a few days and I realized that the problem is with the GST technical implementation.

The GST portal and department has not been truthful to the people of India. Just imagine, if we could have spent the wasted time with our families and loved ones, instead of fixing the DSC problem, which is not our own making.

Deceit #1
You have to look at the GST System Requirements to understand what the government wants from you. It stipulates that you need – Desktop Browser: Internet Explorer 10+/ Chrome 49+ or Firefox 45+. There is no qualification on the OS – whether it is Windows 10, 8, 7 and so on or Mac OS Mountain Lion, High Sierra or whatever.

After following all the guidelines on the GST System Requirements page, I realized that I was wasting my time. While signing with the DSC, I was continuing to get an error that the GST page was unable to connect to the server. I read several online Help pages, but it was just not working.

I began thinking from first principles. The browser has to first communicate with a Java application called emSigner. This application, emSigner, is the GST’s so called server, that is able to communicate with your digital signature token, which is typically purchased by you and provided to you on a USB drive. If the browser is unable to communicate with the emSigner, then it means that the Java interface will not function.

In my case, I was running Windows 10. I had 3 browsers installed- Microsoft Edge (updated in Feb 2018), Google Chrome (Version 63.0.3239.132) and FireFox (57.0.1). At least my Chrome and FireFox comply with the requirements of the GST portal (Chrome 49+ or Firefox 45+).

Next, I checked whether java communication is enabled in the brower, by typing https://java.com/verify in the browser address bar. To my surprise, Chrome 63+ and Firefox 57+ gives feedback that Java is not compatible with it.

So, is it truthful for the Government of India and GST to publish such inaccurate system requirements on its GST portal? Is it fair for it to mislead Indian businesses?

Forget Microsoft Edge, Java is not even supported. Instead, in Windows 10, you have an option to open a page in the legacy Internet Explorer (IE). Apparently, Java does work in IE. For brevity, I’ll refer you all to a solution posted on another blog site post.

Deceit#2
Assuming that everything is working correctly (browser, emSigner and your DSC token), my team is often running into a problem of not being able to access the GST portal server, for submission. This is another strange problem.

I did some digging around and found that Infosys was awarded the contract to implement the GST portal technology. The Indian Government contracted them for Rs. 1380 crores. Further, about 40 lakh businesses filed GST returns in July 2017, when it first started. It is also reported that in October 2017, about 50.1 lakh businesses filed GST returns and that the collections were about Rs. 83,346 crores (US $ 23 billion).

These 50 lakh (5 million) business have to file GST returns in three forms – GSTR-1 (details of all sales made and itemization of individual sales invoices), GSTR-2 (details of all purchases made and itemization of purchase invoices) and GSTR-3 (summary reconciliation of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 and determines whether a company has to pay net taxes or receive a credit). This is a heck of a lot of data! Just imagine, a typical average might be about 500 Invoices (purchases and sales) for a company and we have about 5 million companies, for a total of 2.5 billion invoices. Multiply these 2.5 billion invoices with about 10 data points for each invoice and we have about 25 billion data points per month. All this data has to stored on Government Servers for years together, practically forever, hopefully.

What is the kind of investment required to maintain such huge mounts of data? One needs state-of-the-art data centers, that are reliable and secure. I only know that Infosys was paid Rs. 1380 crore (US $0.2 billion) for the implementation. I am not in the know of how much the Indian Government has spent on the GST data center or where it is. For comparison, Google invests about US $11 billion each year and Facebook about US $2.5 billion each year on their data centers. How much do you think the Indian Government has spent on its GST data centers? I hazard an estimate – probably a few hundred million dollars at the most and certainly not a billion dollars.

If I were to take an educated guess, the Indian businesses are struggling to file and access the GST portal due to sub-standard and poor technology infrastructure – both in terms of inadequate server hardware and terrible software technology.

Way forward
In my opinion the Indian Government has to be honest and transparent with its citizens. It should humbly tell us how much it has spent on server hardware and software. It should be honest about using current and relevant software technology, and also communicate it clearly to Indian businesses.

Knowing very well that the browsers (Edge, IE, Chrome, FireFox) have deprecated Java, they should have abandoned it and used the latest industry standard web technologies. They knew this before GST was introduced (July 2017), but they still went ahead with Java. Is this being honest?

Most importantly, I don’t want the Indian politicians gloating about how they have implemented GST and using hyperbole of catching dishonest businesses. I want the Indian Government to be first honest with the people. If it is honest, people of India will also automatically be honest. It is this type of culture that is needed today in India, to transform itself into a progressive country.

Is the Government of India up for this challenge?

Are you running a business in India? Do you plan on starting a business in India? Think again! The Government of India can shut down your business without notice and for no fault of yours. I’m not kidding, its true!

I’ll share with you a true story of a polluted lake in Bangalore, India and how the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has made the world believe that it was caused by 488 industries and closed them.

Bellandur Lake is one of the large lakes in Bangalore and it is highly polluted. It is well documented that it regularly bellows snow like white foam and that it catches fire! The National Green Tribunal (NGT), which is head quartered in New Delhi, passed on Order (M.A. 440 /2017) asking the Karnataka Government to shut down all industries in the lake’s catchment area. The literal extract of the order says:

“All industries which are located in the catchment area of the Bellandur Lake and are discharging their effluent (treated or untreated) into the water body are hereby directed to be closed forthwith. No industry directed shall be permitted to operate unless they have been subjected to an inspection by the joint inspection team and their analysis of the effluent are found to be within the permissible limit.”

Based on the NGT order, the KSPCB, which is the enforcement agency for pollution for the State of Karnataka, ordered the shutdown of 488 industries on its website (http://www.kspcb.gov.in/) on 05 May 2017.

I downloaded the list of 488 industries that were shut down and computed the total effluents generated by them. In fact, the totals are also listed by the KSPCB at the bottom of that list. According to it, these industries generate 0.003586 MLD (million liters per day) of Trade Effluent (from industrial processes) and 12.455 MLD of Sewage Waste (toilets and day to day people use), for a total of 12.45869 MLD.

The KSPCB cleverly projected that these 488 industries are the root cause for the pollution of Bellandur Lake. They proudly reported the closure to the NGT, the Indian and global media, and the people of Karnataka. The KSPCB Chairman, Lakshman, and his team of Evironmental Officers were the new saviors of the environment, akin to the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

Sounds wonderful? But, hear me out!

I was curious with a simple question – “What is getting into Bellandur Lake?”

When I travel around Bangalore, there are locations where the stench is obnoxious and unbearable. It is like a toilet stuck deep inside your nose. No matter which time of the year I visit these locations, the stench is prevalent. I set out tracing the locations of these stinky places in Bangalore on Google Maps and I was astonished at the end result!

The image in this post is a result of my analysis. You can zoom in on the image and you will see little colored (red, orange, magenta, green, yellow, black and blue) circles that I’ve placed on it. For a live interactive map see https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q3gTo0SMicfBWPut4yLfILn3KUk&usp=sharing.

Do you see a pattern? The top part has 3 open sewage channels that drains into the Ulsoor lake. The Queens Road Stream is marked in magenta red circles, the Benson Town Stream is marked in purple circles and the Banaswadi Stream is marked in pink circles. The Ulsoor Lake drains via a circuitous long path (orange circles) directly into the Bellandur Lake, via Indiranagar.

The middle of the map has 2 open sewage channels, the JWR Stream (red circles) and the Victoria Layout Stream (orange circles), which merge and drain (pink circles) into the Bellandur Lake via Koramangala.

At the bottom we have 3 open sewage channels, the BTM Stream (green circles), the Tavarekere Stream (olive circles) and the HSR Stream (purple circles), which drain into the Bellandur Lake.

It is obvious that the domestic water waste from half of Bangalore is ending up into the Bellandur Lake. Half of Bangalore population would be about 6 million people. The BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) estimates the usage of 164 liters per day per person (https://bwssb.gov.in/content/about-bwssb-2). For 6 million people this translates to 984 MLD. The total BWSSB installed sewage treatment plants (STP’s) is 721 MLD in the whole of Bangalore. If we assume that they are working and we consider that 50% of these cater to this part of Bangalore, the STP’s can only treat 360 MLD. There is a deficit in treatment of 624 MLD. Where is it going? It is simply dumped into the open sewage channels and it merrily flows down into Bellandur Lake. By the way, if you can spot the BWSSB STP’s on Google Maps in this part of Bangalore, you will see that there are insufficient units. The actual domestic sewage effluent flowing into Bellandur Lake is much more than 624 MLD.

We are dumping much more than sewage into these open channels and eventually into the Bellandur Lake. Massive amounts of household chemicals also are dumped. In today’s modern lifestyle, we consume an exotic concoction of surfactants (anionic, cationic, zwitterionic, fillers and builders and cleaning liquids (ammonia and alkali based, acids, hydrocarbons such as phenyls/phenols/alcohols/terpenes/ketones). At 10 grams usage per day per person, this computes to an added 60 MT (metric tons) per day of household chemicals dumped in the Bellandur Lake.

Now comes the icing on the cake. Domestic households are dumping more than 624 MLD of untreated sewage (984 MLD of domestic sewage waste) and 60 MT/day of household chemicals into Bellandur Lake. The 488 closed industries are producing a total of 12.5 MLD, all of which is disposed as per the KSPCB consent permits and not into the Bellandur Lake. This is about 1.2% of all the waste that enters the lake.

Hasn’t the KSPCB fooled the world?

This blog is about the challenges one will face in India. I still have to finish my story. It’s crazy that the Government can shut down working industries with zero due process, fairness and justice. Is it Above the Law?

The NGT order clearly states that “only industries who are discharging their effluent into Bellandur Lake should be closed”. However, the KSPCB issued a closure order to 488 industries, in gross violation of the NGT order. For example, I run a company that is in this famous list and we are 14 Km away as the crow flies. By road, it is about 25 Km. We do not get any supply of water from the city of Bangalore (BWSSB) and we cannot discharge any water since the city has not provided us with sewage drains for the past 35 years! We get our water from bore wells or sometimes we buy it in tankers. We consume about 800 liters of water per day for domestic use and the toilet waste goes into a soak-pit located on site. We produce about 4 liters per day of trade effluent, which we send to a CETP (Centralized Effluent Treatment Plant), as per the KSPCB consent permit. Further, there are no water channels, either natural or manmade, between our location and the Bellandur Lake. The probability of any effluent, even by accidental discharge, reaching the Bellandur Lake is zero!

The KSPCB further empowered other departments to cut off electricity (BESCOM) and water (BWSSB)! How can an industry take care of its non-operational activities? People need to use toilets. They need access to water fountains and pantry facilities. Companies have to use their computers, phone and internet to carry out other activities such as filing of mandatory statutory returns stipulated by the Government of India. They also have a legal obligation to pay their liabilities to vendors and banks.

The hard reality for anyone shutting down an industry even for a few days is staggering. Employees are the first to be hit hard. With no pay, their families suffer the most. The industries default on statutory obligations, since they have no tools to fulfill them. In a modern electronic world, without electricity and internet, life comes to a halt.

Simply put, the KSPCB issued closure orders to all industries in a 20 Km radius from the Bellandur Lake, who had secured proper operational permits and who were in its database. They did this with no prior verification whether an industry was discharging effluent into Bellandur Lake or not. They have not even defined the catchment area. The logic of identifying the 488 industries is bizarre. However, the KSPCB has many reasons for this approach. The motive is spectacular and I’ll write about it in another post.

Their approach has been – shoot first and ask questions later. They have blatantly violated the fundamental rights guaranteed to every citizen under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Article 21 states:

“No person shall be deprived of his life or personal property except according to a procedure established by law.”

Article 21 is a fantastic right and mirrors other similar fundamental rights in countries around the world. It also guarantees the right to “livelihood”. Deny this right and it is no longer a democracy.

This is the way it is in India. It’s like a patient who goes to the doctor for a heart surgery, but instead they operate on the kidneys! I have encountered this type of insaneness with every Government Department. But, the KSPCB takes the gold medal, at least for now.

As they say in Kannada, which is the state language of Karnataka – “swalpa adjust maddi”. It translates beautifully to “please adjust a little.”

India Challenges

GST Portal Errors – Why is the Indian Government not Truthful?

KSPCB has fooled the world!