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Leveraging GST data for Flow based Lending

Access to formal credit continues to be one of the largest challenges faced by MSMEs in India due to lack of verifiable data about their business.Digital payments data combined with GST data has the potential to unlock millions of SMEs & bring them into the formal system. India is going through a Cambrian explosion of data usage. It is estimated that the monthly data consumption on every smartphone in India is estimated to grow nearly five times from 3.9 GB in 2017 to 18 GB by 2023 as per a report by Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson.

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Picture Source: Digital Desh

As businesses and their processes get digitized, it provides us a unique opportunity to re-imagine credit products for MSMEs like never before.

In order to move from traditional Asset-based lending to Data based lending it is important to make the following design considerations:

  • Underwriting based on Data – Assess creditworthiness in real time based on the consented data provided by the user
  • Low-Value – Bringing down the cost of processing a loan using digital platforms like eKYC, eSign & UPI enables one to process sachet sized loans
  • Smaller Tenures – Offer small tenures to reduce risk and thereby build better credit history of a customer
  • Customised Loan Offers – In the old world, loan products were designed to be one size fits all; With data & better underwriting, create a “loan offer on the fly” for a borrower based on his need

Getting started with GST Data Based Lending – Basics

  • Over 8M+ businesses in India will file GST returns
  • Every invoice in the GSTN system is verified by the counterparty
  • GST returns are digitally signed and this data can be accessed through consent of a small business

To access this data, you need the understand the three types of GST APIs:

  • Authentication – Allows a taxpayer to login into his GST account from any application
  • Returns – Allows a taxpayer to file his returns from any application
  • Ledger – Allows a taxpayer to view & share his tax data with any application

You can access the GSTN Sandbox & APIs here: bit.ly/GSTAPIs

If you want more insights, do join the GSTN Discussion Forum here: bit.ly/GSTgroup

The GSTN Tech Ecosystem

Goods and Service Tax Network is a section 8 company set up to provide common and shared IT infrastructure and services to the Central and State Governments, Tax Payers and other stakeholders for the implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST).

In this context, it is important to understand the below two roles of GSTN:

  1. Direct portal for taxpayers – https://services.gst.gov.in/services/login
  2. Expose APIs thru GSPs (GST Suvidha Provider) – http://www.gstn.org/gsp-list/

GST Introduction (1)

GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) – Companies which provide GST API Gateway as a service to application service providers; They are appointed by the GSTN and list of the GSPs can be accessed here:http://www.gstn.org/gsp-list/

ASPs – Companies which provide the user interface for business to file or fetch their returns from the GSTN

Naturally, ASPs are a great fit as distribution partners for lending as they own and control the end user experience of small businesses. Some of the examples are:

Accounting Software Providers

    • They help small business manage their accounting, inventory & even payroll;
    • They have rich data sets about the small business including their GST returns Eg: Tally (Desktop), Zoho/Cleartax/Profitbooks (Cloud-based)

Tax Filing Software Providers

    • These companies help business who use excel/manual billing/custom software to prepare their GST return & file it every month;
    • One of the key stakeholders here is the accountant who essentially is the business advisor for an SMB and tapping into them as an influencer channel is a great opportunity Eg: Cleartax, SahiGST etc.

Supply Chain Automation Companies:

    • Today many FMCGs and Large manufacturing companies are using software to track their sales/inventory in their supply chain; For e.g: Asian Paints, Tata Steel, ITC etc.
    • As these companies enable a large of wholesalers, retailers to use their software problem, there is a great opportunity to extend credit to their entire ecosystem
    • Eg: Moglix, Channel Konnekt, Bizom etc.

Example of a Lender – ASP Partnership

  • Consider a services-based company which provides advertising services to multiple companies
  • Let’s assume they use an accounting software like for example Cleartax or Zoho
  • In the software, the SMB sees a one-click credit button (This is enabled through an integration with the ASP & lender)
  • In a few clicks, the SMB is able to share multiple types of data like – GST, Payroll, Balance Sheet, Bank Statement etc. with the lender
  • With consent, the lender uses this data for underwriting, build a credit score and makes a credit offer to the SMB
  • The SMB provides his bank account details for real-time loan disbursement and based on the type of the business you can complete KYC
  • Take mandate either digitally or physically based on the customer for repayments

There are various other data sources one could use to improve the underwriting like – Smartphone, Payments Data from the Bank, Bill Payments, Electronic Toll Collection & various others. Algorithms can use these data sources along with other other public data sets like – Seasonal demand for a product, Import/Export, GDP, Consumption Patterns to do contextual lending.

We recommend you go through the presentation above to understand these basics & do watch the pre-recorded webinar session below on How to Leverage GST data for Flow-based lending for more details.

At iSPIRT, we are working with multiple stakeholders to create a winning implementation of Flow-Based Lending. Do watch out for future announcements from us for entrepreneurs working in this space or write to us [email protected] to know more.

About the Author

Nikhil Kumar is a full-time fellow with iSPIRT Foundation, a non for profit think-thank and has been focussed on building the developer ecosystem for the India Stack.

Twitter: @nikhilkumarks

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GSP at GSTN what we know till now

Recently GSTN invited application for becoming GSTN Suvidha Provider (GSP) under GSTN for enabling much awaited Goods and Service Tax. GSTN received total 344 applications. CEO GSTN reported in GSP workshop on 25th October that about 98 of these applicants are qualified for further evaluations according to them.

gsp-at-gstn-what-we-know-till-now

The GSP application process, when started created lot of confusion and concern on the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria are given here. One common concern was the financial capability criteria’s set by GSTN of:

  1. Paid up / Raised capital of at least Rs. 5 crores and
  2. Average turnover of at least 10 Crores during last 3 financial years.

iSPIRT had proposed that instead of a heavy turnover criterion the GSTN could have used a performance guarantee or a surety bond, both to ascertain the serious players and cover the risk of fly by night operators. This would allow some startups to take the risk and succeed to become GSPs.

The announcement did not clarify what is a GSP or what role will it have in the system.

A large number of interested startups through the GSP was about an application provider of product to file and comply with GST. Hence, the above criteria were considered as a barrier to startups. GSTN although off the record said they will accept application from all and will then evaluate who will be fit to become a GSP. This was however a very subjective approach, where GSTN will use their discretion to allow an enterprise to setup a GSP or not.

These concerns and doubts created confusion in minds of many startups, who have been looking towards the GST as an opportunity to innovate and implement in the space of tax compliance with added value with analytics and business intelligence.

It is subsequent to the workshop that many of these doubts have been cleared.

What finally turns out to be is that the GSPs are the middle layer infrastructure or utility provider or a API gateway to large number of GST filing apps. There may be a mix of GSP/ASP model where an ASP sets up a captive GSP. Even in that case GSP is merely a Gateway.

This blog is to answer some of the questions raised by participants in a Google Hangout conducted by Nikhil Kumar an iSPIRT volunteer. Additionally, it also answers other basic question with the related topic of GSP.

What is GSTN?

GSTN stands for Goods and Service Tax Network. It is a section 8, not for profit private company, with shareholding of Government of India, Government of States and UTs and financial institutions.

As a Special purpose vehicle(SPV), GSTN’s mandate is to establish, develop and manage the required infrastructure, systems, technology, partnerships and eco-system for implementation of GST.

What is a GSP?

GSP stands for GSTN Suvidha Provider. GSTN does not want to facilitate or connect to Goods and Service Tax filing application (called ASPs by GSTN and in this document) directly. This is for reasons of security and scale. Therefore, GSTN has planned a number of GSPs who will act as a middle layer between the ASPs or business and GSTN.

GSPs will facilitate the use of GSTN system to the businesses as well as products and application (developed by ASPs) to file the GST returns, match sales and purchase invoices to settle tax credits. The GSPs will hence help secure GSTN from direct exposure to users on internet as well as distribute the load in a large economy like India.

A GSP will hence act as a gateway that will pass enable the pass through of GSTN APIs (application programming interface) to and from users. There are three types of GSPs envisaged:

  • Plain GSP (Independent GSPs) who will just facilitate the ASPs to use them as Gateways
  • Captive GSPs – (GSP/ASP) used by large businesses for their API consumption/pass through. These may include ASPs wanting to become GSP and use the GSP for their APS having heavy load
  • Open GSPs (GSP/ASP + ASPn) who may use for their ASP and also allow independent ASPs

gsps

Source: GSTN website click here

This is how it is depicted in the above slide shown in GSP workshop. However, during the talk on GSP workshop it was mentioned that it will be mandatory for all GSPs to allow any ASP to use the GSTN APIs. Hence, it remains to be clarified by GSTN, weather the model 2 shown in above diagram means a Captive GSP and weather a captive GSP can deny access to third party ASPs to it’s GSP.

GSTN will sign an agreement with the selected GSPs which will govern the contractual relationship between GSTN and GSPs.

How many GSPs would be allowed?

There is no final decision on how many GSPs will finally exist or be allowed. However, in the first phase, 98 GSP applicants would be allowed to participate in the technical evaluation. How many will pass or how many more will be evaluated has not been declared yet.

Who is an ASP? What is relationship between an ASP and a GSP?

Application Service Providers are – Accounting Software, Invoicing Software, Point of Sale (POS) systems and other innovative applications that can enable businesses comply with GST. ASPs can work with multiple GSPs to enable GST for their customers.

Some ASPs may also have their own captive GSP. Dominant accounting and ERP product companies may have their captive GSP as this further opens up in future.

ASPs will have a contractual relationship with GSPs that they use.

How many ASPs can exist? Does ASP is related to GSTN under a formal relationship?

As per GSTN, they do not want to control the ASPs and leave this for market forces to decide how many ASPs can be there.

ASPs are not a directly related party with GSTN. ASPs will have a contractual relationship with GSPs and GSTN will ensure the GSPs provide a free and fair access to ASPs to the GSTN resources.

Can an ASP apply to become a GSP later?

GSTN , says yes they will evaluate on case to case basis. There is no defined policy. On eligible as per the criteria laid out it in the next phase

What are the commercial terms for a GSP?

As per current information, GSTN will waive the first year charges for the GSPs. However, the GSPs would be allowed to charge the downstream ASPs. GSPs can also provide value added services on top of GSTN APIs and charge for them.

Again there is no define answer. The market will decide many things in future. For startups and small ASP players, it is important number of independent GSPs emerge for a fair and free market to exist.

Can GSP share or use Data for business?

As per announcement at GSTN workshop, the GSPs will not be allowed to share the GST data of businesses filing returns or sell the data to third parties. However, GSP can use this data themselves to create value added service offerings like business analytics and charge the individual businesses to do so. This means the data can be used to create a service offering for the given business only and cannot be cross sold to other parties. GSP will have to strictly adhere to data privacy clauses.

How will GSTN ensure third party ASPs get GSP services early on launch of GST?

NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited (NSDL e-Gov) is the depository (promoted by NSE, now running infrastructure and services for many mission mode projects of Government of India. NSDL is also slated to run the GSTN services.

NSDL will provide the neutral GSP services as an official independent GSP to ASPs. GSTN thus ensures that at least one GSP is ready for third party ASP providers get a GSP to serve the market.

Will GSPs expose the same API set as per GSTN Sandbox?

As per GSTN answers to this questions, the GSPs will be legally bound to expose the GSTN APIs on a complete transparent pass through. However, GSP can provide additional rapper APIs for value add that they will like to build or management of their system.

Will the developer sandbox be available to anyone?

As per GSTN response, Yes.

Will there be any further workshops or hackathons?

GSTN may conduct these in the future. However, none planned as of now.

Where can one find the workshop PPT and other resources of GSTN?

One can use following resources of GSTN to get to more details.

What is iSPIRT pitching for?

At iSPIRT we are continuously involved with GSTN. Role of GST will be a game changer for India’s economy.

Our endeavour is that GSTN is able to offer a thriving platform for number of Product companies existing and new. It is also able to provide an open environment for innovation that can help some startups emerge offering valuable products to the business community.

[this blog is based on Google Hangout conducted on the topic by iPSIRT voluteer Nikhil Kumar, the inputs at GSP workshop conducted by GSTN on 25 Oct 2016 and group discussions with Bharat Goneka, Pramod Verma and Gian Franco Bonini of iSPIRT]

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RBI Governor Dr. Raghuram Rajan meets Product Startups.

He is a maverick, a reformer, a decision maker and above all the Governor of Reserve Bank of India. The country’s foremost authority in Economics met with Product startups in Bangalore to understand their challenges and also provide useful advise by participating in interactive sessions for close to 3 hours.

2015-02-27 10.23.43
Yesterday, at ITC Windsor Manor, Dr Raghuram Rajan, honorable governor of RBI, along with Industry stalwarts Mohan Das Pai, Sudhir Sethi, MD of IDG Ventures, Shekar Kirani, Accel Partners, Sharad Sharma (iSPIRT), Bharat Goenka (Tally) and many other industry leaders heard the stories of about 10 Indian startups. The idea was to understand the following challenges of the startup Ecosystem

  1. Startups from India Competing with Global Giants with Capital Markets Challenges (like raising capital from Domestic FIIs, listing for IPOs, and other book building challenges)
  2. Startups from India building Software and Technology Products and solving local and domestic problems with the new & developing landscape of Consumer Market Challenges (like changing landscape of payments, pre-payments, recurring payments, etc)
  3. Product Companies like Tally and others from India, empowering small and medium businesses in INDIA to become Digital SMEs for leap-frogging the Indian Economy.

Dr. Rajan, was very forthcoming with his following admissions and suggestions.

  • Some of some of the difficulties in moving money in and Out of the Country (FEMA regulations for example), requires a more coherent set of rules, regulations and systems.
  • He also suggested that all Institutions, need to keep pace with the technological advances, and the need was really to have an Inclusive approach to carry everyone forward.
  • He assured full commitment to the Payments Systems Revolution, highlighting that
    • Payment Banks and Small Banks will be in full steam in about 12-18 months
    • Innovative ideas of White-labeling of BCs (Business Correspondents) via Individuals, Corporations or Registered Companies was actively being discussed.
  • His willingness to open up a dialog with Innovative Companies, where Banks are a purchaser of Technology was also evident in his offer to have more follow-on meeting.

Close to 180 minutes of conversation and showcasing of New Product Startups and Business Houses like Tally from Bangalore. Around 8 companies got the opportunity to showcase and highlight their challenges and directly interface with the Dr Rajan himself. Not all elements of the session can be reproduced here, but below are some of the key highlights and learnings.

2015-02-27 10.24.32Home grown Startups share their Stories with RBI

About 10 Indian Startups which started in INDIA, and which have global operations today, presented their stories not just from a valuation and growth standpoint, but from an emotional and proud-to-be an Indian startup viewpoint. To sum it up, almost every story was about Entrepreneur’s who dared to dream something not only for them, but for INDIA, and today want the Indian Systems (Regulators, Government and Institutions) to reciprocate to their needs. They highlighted their list of issues, the below checklist includes, but is not limited, to the following.

  • InMobi’s Naveen Tiwari, believed that INDIA can be the HUB for solving Global problems and with 39 other startups which have spun-off from INMOBI, it was clear that there is a 10x growth that is possible in the Indian startup eco-system.
  • Uniken a Security startup company with solutions for the Hyper-connected world, spoke about how their solutions have been deployed by Global and Indian Banks, including Bynet Communications. They stressed the need for all Indian Banks to adopt the latest solutions from India Solution Providers themselves which are on par or better than many cutting-edge solutions from outside of INDIA.
  • Fintellix highlighted their Software for GRC Intelligence (Governance, Regulation and Compliance), which are today used by both Indian and Global Private Banks, but they cannot get through even the RFP process of many Public Sector Banks, due to archiac processes.
  • Freshdesk presented a crowd sourced Customer Support Platform for Businesses, Tally Spoke about large scale adoption of their Accounting Software by SMEs (in millions), FORUS presented their home-grown medical devices (3nethra) which could be adopted by Indian Hospitals for 1/3 the cost, and how 80% of issues leading to Blindness can be prevented, while SnapBizz showed how even Kirana Store business owners today could gain improved visibility using the SnapBizz cloud platform.
  • Team INDUS and Deck.in showed, how Indian startups are turning world-beaters with their big ambitions in Aerospace and Enterpsie Software solutions.
  • Bharat Goenka and Pramod highlighted the need for Separation of Concerns between Transaction Enablers (Banks) and Technology Providers. Goenka stressed that Velocity of Growth, is dependent directly on the velocity of transactions.

Insights and Learnings from RBI and Dr. Rajan.

There were many learnings for all participating Startup & Business Entrepreneurs. Some of the key ones are

  • Dr. Rajan believes that for Capital availability & Funding Process for Innovators there needs to be a different RISK Framework that needs to adopted. The existing RISK framework was meant to keep the bad-elements away from the System. The new RISK framework should look at being a support system for Good Innovators.
  • Dr. Rajan also was open to look at enabling PUT-OPTIONs which will provide down-side risk protection for atleast the Investment-value like in WESTERN Contracts.
  • Dr. Rajan however, said we must all be cautious of Back-door debt masquerading as Equity and causing Systemic Harm.
  • Dr Rajan, participated enthusiastically on the following topics
    • Payment Banks / Small Banks and their utility for the Indian Business growth
    • NPCI framework and Payment Systems Revolution
    • Working with FEMA (Mr. Padmanabhan) to resolve difficulties in Money Movements.
  • Other most important advise for Startups were also discussed. To note a few,
    • RBI Governor said India has a decent Capital Chest which provides some Immunity to the Global shocks, however we cannot act in Haste.
    • Today, the need for Inclusive growth were the Unsophisticated Audience can also be carried forward, should be an objective for all innovative solutions.
    • Indian Public Sector institutions should welcome tech-savvy and young entrepreneurs as part of some of their committees.
    • Most importantly RBI can play a convening role for adoption of Innovative Products by Indian Banks.

2015-02-27 10.24.03Conclusion

Overall it is apparent that the INDIAN technology/internet product markets, are in a Golden Moment where Aspirational issues are leading to better RISK appetite among INDIAN Entrepreneurs. It is a new Paradigm where not just startups, but all Institutionals bodies with-in INDIA, need to now collaborate and commit, for supporting each other’s RISKs and Needs. RBI on its part has definitely shown keen interest, and to quote from a fine statement made by Girish, Dr. Rajan, believes that RBI interventions may arrive late, but they will definitely be latest. The Entrepreneur hence must be patient and not act in HASTE.