GST – GST FAQ 3rd Edition – December, 2018 – 23 – 23. GSTN and Frontend Business Process on GST Portal Q 1. What is GSTN? Ans. Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a not-for profit, non-government company under Section-8 of the Companies Act-2013, promoted jointly by the Central and State Governments, to provide shared IT infrastructure and services, to both central and state governments including tax payers and other stakeholders. The Front end services of Registration, Returns, Payments, etc. to all taxpayers will be provided by GSTN. It will be the interface between the government and the taxpayers. Further, GSTN also provides the Back-End Services to tax officers of the Model 2 states. Considering the nature of function performed by GSTN, GST Council has taken a decision that GSTN be converted into a fully owned government Company. For this, the entire 51% equity holding held by the Non-Governmental Institutions in GSTN shall be acquired equally by the Centre and the States go
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s were only possible only when there is a strong IT Infrastructure and Service back bone which would have enabled capturing, processing and exchange of information amongst the stakeholders (including taxpayers, States and Central Government, Bank and RBI). To achieve these objectives of establishing a uniform interface for the tax payer and a common and shared IT infrastructure between the Centre and States, the SPV namely GSTN was created. Q 3. What is the genesis of GSTN? The requirement of a strong IT Infrastructure was discussed in the 4th meeting of 2010 of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers (referred to as the EC) held on 21/7/2010. In the said meeting, the EC approved the creation of an Empowered Group on IT Infrastructure for GST (referred to as the EG) under the chairmanship of Dr. Nandan Nilekani with Additional Secretary (Rev), Member (B&C) CBIC, DG (Systems), CBIC, FA Ministry of Finance, Member Secretary EC and five state commissioners of Trade Taxes (M
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ose Vehicle for implementing the GST System Project. To enable efficient and reliable provision of services in a demanding environment, the EG recommended a non- Government structure for the SPV called GSTN with Government equity of 49% (Centre – 24.5% and States – 24.5%) after considering key parameters such as independence of management, strategic control of Government(s), flexibility in its organizational structure, agility in decision making and ability to hire and retain competent human resources from both, government and private sector. In view of the sensitivity of the role of GSTN and the information that would be available with it, the EG also considered the issue of strategic control of Government over GSTN. The Group recommended that strategic control of the Government over the SPV should be ensured through measures such as composition of the Board of Directors (also referred to as the Board), mechanisms of Special Resolution and Shareholders Agreement, induction of Governme
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eting of 2011 held on 19th August 2011 and in the 4th meeting of 2011 of the EC held on 14th Oct 2011. The proposal of the EG on IT infrastructure for GST regarding GSTN and formation of a not-for-profit section 25 company with the strategic control of the Government were approved by the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers (EC) in its meeting held on 14.10.11. The note of Department of Revenue for setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle to be called Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN-SPV) on the lines mentioned above was considered by the Union Cabinet on 12th April 2012 and approved. The Union cabinet also approved the following: i. Suitable and willing non-government institutions will be identified and firmed up by the Ministry of Finance to invest in GSTN-SPV prior to its incorporation. ii. The strategic control of the Government over the SPV would be ensured through measures such as composition of the Board, mechanisms of Special Resolution and Shareholders Agreement, ind
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other service provider seeking to deliver similar integrated services would be required to enter into a formal arrangement with GSTN SPV for the services. vii. A one- time non- recurring Grant- in aid of ₹ 315 crores from the Central Government towards functioning of the SPV for a three-year period after incorporation. Considering the nature of function performed by GSTN, GST Council has taken a decision that GSTN be converted into a fully owned government Company. For this, the entire 51% equity holding held by the Non-Governmental Institutions in GSTN shall be acquired equally by the Centre and the States governments. Q 4. What is the equity structure and Revenue Modelof GSTN? Ans. (a) Equity Structure: – In compliance of the Cabinet decision, GST Network was registered as a not-for-profit, non-Government, private limited company under section 8 of the Companies Act, 1956 with the following equity structure: Central Govt 24.5% State Govts 24.5% HDFC 10% HDFC Bank 10 ICICI Bank
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The Revenue model for GSTN has been approved by the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers under which user charges will be paid by the Centre and States/UTs equally on behalf of taxpayers and other stakeholders for availing services from the GST Portal. The user charges will be shared equally by the Centre and the States. The user charges for States will be apportioned amongst them based on number of registered taxpayers. Q 5. What services are being rendered by GSTN? Ans. GSTN renders the following services through the Common GST Portal: (a) Registration (including existing taxpayer migration); (b) Payment management including payment Gateways and integration with banking systems; (c) Return filing and processing; (d) Taxpayer management, including account management, notifications, information, and status tracking; (e) Tax authority account and ledger Management; (f) Computation of settlement (including IGST Settlement) between the Centre and States; Clearing house for IGST;
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all be provided by GSTN and the Back-End modules shall be developed by states and Central Government themselves. However, 27 states (termed as Model-2 states) asked GSTN to develop their Back-End interface also. The CBIC and 9 states (Model 1) decided to develop and host the Back-End modules themselves. For Model 1 states/ CBIC full data (registration, return, payment etc.) submitted by taxpayers is being shared with them for information and analysis as deemed fit by them. Q 7. What is the role of GSTN in registration? Ans. The application for Registration is made Online on GST Portal. Some of the key data like PAN, Business Constitution, Aadhaar, CIN/DIN etc. (as applicable) is validated by the GST Portal online with the respective agency i.e. CBDT, UID, MCA etc., thereby ensuring minimum need for submission of documentation. The application data along with supporting scanned documents is being sent by GSTN to states/ Centre, which in turn processed that application and sends the quer
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ation of Challan and integration with agency Banks; iv. ITC and Cash Ledger and Liability Register; v. MIS reporting for tax payers, tax officials and other stakeholders; vi. BI/Analytics for Tax officials. Q 10. What is the concept of GST Eco-system? Ans. A common GST system will provide linkage to all State/UT Commercial Tax departments, Central Tax authorities, Taxpayers, Banks and other stakeholders. The eco-system consists of all stakeholders starting from taxpayer to tax professional to tax officials to GST portal to Banks to accounting authorities. The diagram given below depicts the whole GST eco-system. Q 11. What is GSP (GST Suvidha Provider)? Ans. GST System will provide a GST portal for taxpayers to access the GST System and do all the GST compliance activities. But there will be wide variety of tax payers (SME, Large Enterprise, Micro Enterprise etc.) which may require different kind of facilities like converting their purchase/sales register data in GST compliant format,
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Ans. GSP develops applications having features like return filing, reconciliation of purchase register data with auto populated data for acceptance/rejection/Modification, dashboards for taxpayers for quick monitoring of GST compliance activities. They may also provide role based access to divide various GST related activities like uploading invoice, filing returns etc., among different set of users inside a company (medium or large companies will need it), Applications for Tax Professional to manage their client s GST compliance activities, Integration of existing accounting packages/ERP with GST System, etc. Q 13. What are the benefits to taxpayers in using the GSPs? Ans. At the outset it is clarified that all required functions under GST can be performed by a taxpayer at the GST portal. GSP is an additional channel being made available for facilitating the taxpayers for performing some of the functions and use of their services is optional. Some of the specific solution(s) which co
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s from one dashboard, etc. Above are just a few illustrations. There will be many more requirements of different sets of Tax payers. These requirements of taxpayers can be met by GSPs. Q 14. What are the functions which a taxpayer performs at the GST Common Portal being developed and maintained by GSTN for the taxpayers? Ans. GST Common Portal is envisaged as one-stopshop for all requirements under GST for the taxpayers. Illustrative list of functions that can be performed by taxpayers through GST Portal managed by GSTN are: Application for registration as well as amendment in registration, cancellation of registration and profile management; Payment of taxes, including penalties, fines, interest, etc. (in terms of creation of Challan as payment will take place at bank s portal or inside a bank premises); Change of status of a taxpayer from normal to Compounding and vice-versa; Uploading of Invoice data & filing of various statutory returns/Annual statements; Track status of return
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of uploading returns on the last day. Q 17. Does GSTN provide tools for uploading invoice data on GST portal? Ans. Yes, GSTN has provided spreadsheet like tools (such as Microsoft Excel), Offline Utilities, free of cost, to taxpayers to enable them to compile invoice data in the same and generate files which can then be uploaded on GST portal. This are offline tools which can be used to input/capture invoice data without being online and then generate final files in compatible format for uploading to GST portal. These can be accessed at Download section of GST Portal. Q 18. Does GSTN be provide mobile based Apps to view ledgers and other accounts? Ans. The GST portal is being designed in such a way that it can be seen on any smart phone. Thus ledgers like cash ledger, liability ledger, ITC ledger etc. can be seen on a mobile phone using compatible browsers. Q 19. Does GSTN provide separate user ID and password for GST Practitioner to enable them to work on behalf of their customers (T
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uals, FAQ s etc., have also be placed on GST Portal for education of the taxpayers. Apart from it, an interactive Self-Help Grievance Redressal Portal has been set up for the taxpayers for logging of their tickets (https://selfservice.gstsystem.in/) or phone (01244688999). CBT, FAQ and User Manuals for enrolment process are readily available at https://www.gst.gov.in/help. GSTN conducts webinars on various topics related to GST Portal and same can be seen in GSTN you tube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/GoodsandServicesTaxNetwork). Apart from sending bulk mails to the taxpayers regarding new functionalities and advisories, GSTN connects with the taxpayers and other stakeholders through its social media channel i.e facebook https://www.facebook.com/gstsystemsindia/ and twitter handle (@ask GSTech) https://www.facebook.com/gstsystemsindia/ and through regular updates on new functionalities /advisories and troubleshooting tips. Q 22. Does the return and registration data furnished by t
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