Amidst concerns of security of citizen information with government programmes such as Aadhaar, the Goods and Service Tax Network (GSTN)is working on strong measures to ensure security of tax data.

“Security of data is of prime importance. The GSTN will also get invoice level data with item cost. We understand that if the competitor comes to know, it can be a setback,” said Prakash Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, GSTN.

Around 260 crore to 300 crore business-to-business invoices are expected to be filed with the GSTN every month when taxpayers file their returns under GST.

Addressing a PHDCCI conference on GST, Kumar stressed that the data will be highly secure and encrypted and even officers of the GSTN will not be able to access it.

“No single operator in the GSTN will be able to access the data alone. The full data will be accessed only by the taxpayer and the concerned tax officer,” he said. He added that the GSTN has 100 per cent backup for the integrity of data. “The information supply gets stored in encrypted form in four locations,” he said. The GST is scheduled to be rolled out from July 1 this fiscal and assesees will begin filing returns from August 1 using the GSTN portal.

Kumar said that 56.5 lakh taxpayers of the total 80 lakh assessees have already been enrolled under GST. This includes 75.28 per cent of all the value added tax (VAT) assessees. Similarly, 31.5 per cent of the service tax payers have also registered.

GSTN will complete training of 60,000 central and state officers by middle of the next month. All tax payments over ₹10,000 will have to be made through online methods. Taxpayers will be able to use debit and credit cards to pay their taxes, Verma said, adding that they can also use authorised bank branches to pay their taxes through RTGS and NEFT.

Related Topics