GSTN, The Private Company Behind GST Infrastructure, To Be Taken Over By Government

With the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime slowly normalising, the government is looking forward to fully or partially takeover the private stake in Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), the company behind the information technology (IT) infrastructure of the indirect tax system.

According to the report by Economic Times, Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley has asked finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia to examine the possibility of majority ownership of GSTN by the government.

Currently, 51 per cent of the company is held by ICICI Bank, HSFC Bank, LIC Housing Finance Limited and NSE Strategic Investment Corporation. The remaining 49 per cent is held by the central and state governments equally. The centre and states will continue to hold equal stakes in the new arrangement and the private entities have been informally informed of the development.

The stakes will be brought back at the original price without any premium as GSTN is a not-for-profit entity.

GSTN is the company behind the GST portal and the e-way bill system, and was incorporated as a private company to ensure that tight deadlines for the IT infrastructure are adequately met. Now, that the systems have matured, the government hopes it can take the company off the majority private ownership.