MHA looks into safety of GSTN, days ahead of GST's roll out

The Home Ministry is examining the safety of the GSTN, an information-technology backbone of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), on the basis of a reference from the Finance Ministry.

The process of granting national security clearance to the GSTN is going on, official sources said today, without giving any deadline.

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), a not-for- profit private limited company, has 51 per cent equity of five private institutions--HDFC Bank Ltd (10 per cent), HDFC Ltd (10 per cent), ICICI Bank Ltd (10 per cent), NSE Strategic Investment Corporation Ltd (10 per cent) and LIC Housing Finance Limited (11 per cent).

The central government has 24.5 per cent equity in the GSTN, whereas state governments, two Union territories and empowered committee of state finance ministers together hold another 24.5 per cent stake in it. No time frame can be decided for grant of the clearance, they said.