• Notification Date: 12-07-2023
• Notification No: N/A

Govt enables sharing of Data between GSTN and Enforcement Directorate

The government has notified the exchange of information between the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) to assist in investigations. 

The notification is regarding sharing of information between ED and GSTN under section 66(1)(iii) of PMLA. PMLA was enacted to tackle terror funding and drug trafficking. 

“GSTN holds very sensitive data at a granular level which could help in aiding and assisting the investigations. This was expected and it is bound to be of great help to ED to investigate cases more effectively,” Nagendra Kumar, Senior Advisor, Deloitte, reported. 

The notification will now facilitate sharing of information or material in possession between the two if they have reasons to believe that the provisions of the GST have been contravened. 

“Sharing of incriminating information with GSTN would ensure that the authority is empowered to restrict the operation of dubious businesses. This will help the government identify and apprehend the original source of fraudulent transactions leading to a more compliant ecosystem,” Rajat Mohan, Senior Partner, AMRG & Associates, reported. 

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has been going all out to plug evasion. 

CBIC Chairman Vivek Johri in a recent interview stated that it will continue its work against fake billing and fake invoicing on identifying bogus units and weeding them out of the system. 

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has come a long way in six years. The number of taxpayers has doubled from around 68 lakhs in 2017 to around 1.4 crore; the average monthly revenue has also risen almost at the same pace from close to Rs 90,000 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 1.69 lakh crore in the current financial year.