Unit - 5

GST AND TECHNOLOGY

Meaning of GSTN (GST Network)

GST Network Ltd is a non-government Pvt Ltd. Company promoted by the central and
state government with the specific mandate to build the IT infrastructure &the services
required for implementing GST, including the software which tax payers will use to fle
returns.

GST subsumes many existing indirect taxes and introduces one tax policy. But, to
implement this is possible only through technology. So, the govt has assigned the
responsibility to GSTN to take care of the technological aspect of implementing the GST.
Naveen Kumar is a chairman of GSTN. It is his responsibility to make GST work seamless/ly
across the length &breadth of the country.

Vision, mission
Vision:. To become a trustedNational Information Utilitiy (NIU) which provides reliable,
efficient &robust lIT backbone for the smooth functioning of the goods and services tax
regime enabling economic agents to leveragethe entire nation as one market with minimal
indirect tax compliances cost.

Mission:.
1. To provide common &share lIT infrastructure &services to the central &state govt,
tax payers &other stakeholders for implementation of the goods and services tax
(GST).
2. Provide common registration, return &payment services to the tax payers.
3. Partner, with other agencies for creating an efficient user friendly GST eco-system.
4. Encourage &collaborate with GST Suvidha Provider's (GSP's) to role out GST
applications for providing simpified services to the stakeholders.
5. Carry out research, study best practices &provide training &consultancy to the tax
authorities & other stakeholders.
6. Provide efficient backend services to the tax dept of the central &state govt on
request.
7. Develop tax payer profiling utility (TPU) for central &state tax administration.
8. Assessed tax authorities in improving tax compliances &transparency of tax
administration system.
9. Delivered any other services of relevance to the central &state govt's & other
stakeholders on request.

Powers & functions of GSTN

The GSTN shall provide a share IT infrastructure &services to central &state govt's tax
payers &other stakeholders for implementation of GST.
Some of the functions of GSTN are as follwos:
1. Facilitating registration.
2. Forwarding the returns to central& state authorities.
3. Computation &settlement of IGST.
4. Matching of tax payment details with banking network.
 govt's based on the tax payer
). Providing various MIS reports to the central &state
return information.
6. Providing analysis of tax payers profile.
Tax
1. Running the matching engine for matching, reversal& re-claim of ITC (Input
Credit)
8. Payment management including payment gateways &integration with banking
system.
9. Tax authority account &ledger management.
10. Maintenance of interfaces between the common GST Dortal and tax administration
system.
11. Processing &reconiliation of GST on import &integration with EDl systerms of
customers.
12. Provide training to stakeholders.
13. Provide analytics &business intelligence to tax authorities.
14.Carryout research &study best practices.
The GSTN would be integrating the common GST portal with the existing tax
administration IT system for an easy compliances.
Some of the powers of GSTN are given below:

1. Creating an efficient IT infrastructure

The primary priority of GS TN is to developa robust and common IT infrastructure. So, that
the tax payers can use it for registration purpose filing of returns, tax payments &generation
of business intelligence &analytics. The tax official of the respective tax department will still
have control over the statutory functions like approval of registration, assessment, audit etc.
2. Processing registration application
In the GST regime, the registration of the tax payers will be done on the common GST
portal. Proper scrutiny and validation of the application will be shared with respective state &
central tax authorities. Any queries which originate will also be communicated to the
applicant through the GST portal. Thus, GST portal willact as acommon interface for all the
tax payer &registration applicants across the country.
3. Payment of GST by the tax payers
GST invoice will prevent human intervention from the side of banks &thus, minimise the
possibility of errors when done offline there will be two options availatble to the tax payer to
pay the tax.
A. Online: the tax payer can pick one of the agency banks; this are the banks that have
the authority to collect GST, as directed by RBI. After submitting the user lD&
password of the banks, the tax payer can make the necessary payment on the banks
website, &download the pay challan from the GST portal once the payment has
been confirmed by the bank.
B. Offline: the tax payer also has the option of an offine tax payment the can print the
challan &present it in the corresponding bank for an Over The Counter (0TC)
payment. The bank, after confirmation of the payment, will have the money transfer
to RBI &send proper confirmation of the same to GSTportal for accounting process.
The GST portal willsend al the information &data that has been collected from
the banks &share it with RBI &other accounting authorities for reconciliation.
 4. Filing of returns
AVailability of ITC at various level is one of the most impotant features of GST. For ciaiming
Of the ITC billions of buyers &seller invoice will have to be uploaded &matched every
month. The common GST portal which has been developed by GSTN Will handle this task
on the basis of invoice level data fled as apart of inter-state supplies where goods &
services will be supplied from the state of origin to the state of the consumption. The taxation
will be done accordingly, as a GST is a destination based tax. The claim of IGST &the
utilisation of credit will be done on the basis of the returns filed on the GST portal.

Structure of GST
The board of directors of GSTN SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) would comprise 14
directors with 3 directors from the centre, 3 from the states, a chairman of the BOD
appointed through a joint approval mechanism of centre &state, 3directors from private
equity stakeholders, 3independent directors who would be persons of eminence &a CEO of
the GST& SPV selectedthrough an open selection process.

GSP (Goods &Services Tax Suvidha Providers) concept of GSP

Itis expected that the GSP'S shall provide the tax payers with all services mentioned
above in addition to maintaining their business ledgers (sales &purchase ledgers) &other
value added services around the same. Another important services expected from GSP'S is
the automatic reconciliation of purchases made &entered in the purchase register &data
downloaded in the form of GSTR-2 from the GST portal. In additional there will be sector
specific or trades specific needs which the GSP'S are expected to fulfil.

Guidelines & Architecture for GSP or ISP integration with GST system
1. GSP'S must adhere to all govt of ndia IT security stands &regulatory requirements.
GSP'S must comply with IT Act 2000 (includingg 43A) &amendments thereof.
2. The ISP'Swill submit the list of GSP'S that they connect to the GST system. ISP'S
should also be prepared to sign necessary agreements for a compliance needs as
applicable at various data centres (from data centre providers).
3. Each on-bordered ISP shall bring &deploy there own infrastructure in GSTN data
centres in order to provide connectivity services to GSP'S.
4. ISP'S must provide ISP routers Customers Premises Equipments (CPE routers) in
high availability mode at both DC 1 (Delhi) &DC 2 (Bangalore) locations of GSTN.
5. /SP'S shall arrange for the required run space of GSTN cage area.
6. /SP routers has to be posted in the ISP'S cage area or ISP'S rack near to GSTN DC
1or DC 2cage area in a highly secured manner.
7. The cost of these IBProuters has to be borne by the ISP'S & GSTN & or its managed
service providers (MSP)will not provide any link or incur any cost for providing these
devices to ISP'S. The hosting charges or the cost of the required cost space (power,
cooling, cabling etc) has to be borne by ISP'S.
8. MPLs connectivity order will be given directly by G^P's to their respective ISP's. The
cost of their MPL's link has to be borne by the ISP's or GSP's (MPLS =Multi Protocol
LabelSwitching)
9. (SP's shall provide links at both the GSTN DC's i.e., DC1 &DC2.
 10. GSTN or its MSP wil not provide any links or incur any cost for providing the MPLs
connectivity to GSP's.
11. ISP's along with GSP's must provide adequate bandwidth end to end for connecting
to GST systems.
12. The lSP's providing connectivity services to GSP's shall provide identical set up in
GSTN DC1 & DC2
13. GSP's has to route the GSTN related URLs IP's inside the respective ISP's or GSP's
network &the IP details will be provided at the time of integration.
14. ISP's routers must support for policy based translatio.
15.APl application at GSTN end is in active-active both DC1 &DC2.
GSP ecosystem
Meaning: Acommon GST system will provide linkage to all state or union territory
commercial tax department, central tax authorities, tax payers, banks &other stakeholders.
The ecosystem consist of all stakeholders starting from tax payer to tax professional to tax
officials to GST portal to banks to accounting authorities.

Features of GSP ecosystem

1. GST system is following aplatform approach for providing services to tax payers.
2. AllGST system functionalities like registration of entities, uploading of invoices, filing
of returns willall be available through AP.
3. GSTN believes in creating an 'ecosystem of service providers namely GST Suvidha
Providers (GSP) providing innovative solutions either themselves or through its third
party partners for making tax filing more easy &convenient to tax payers.
4. GSTN envisages avery important role of GSP'S in making GST role out easy &
convenient for tax payers.