This story is from April 05, 2017
Services Tax
(GST), terming it "a shady organisation" and saying it was a "grave security" issue. He demanded that theRajya Sabha
should first discuss the structure of this company before taking up the bills relating to GST. Four GST bills are slated for consideration in theHouse
today. "I wish to bring to the notice of this House a grave national security matter which should receive precedence before we consider the GST Bill, and that is a body private limited company which was created in 2013 called GSTN," he said during the Zero Hour in the House. He said the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) will carry out all data processing in the proposed indirect tax regime. Swamy said a Select Committee of the House headed byBhupinder Yadav
in its report had recommended that the government should take immediate steps to ensure that non-governmental shareholding in GSTN is limited to state- owned banks or public sector financial institutions. He said the GSTN has been designed in such a manner that it cannot be audited by CAG andRTI
too does not apply to it. "This is a kind of a shady organisation that is coming into being," he said, adding the House should first discuss whether GSTN would be restructured according to the Select Committee recommendations or not. GSTN, a non-government, private limited company, was incorporated on March 28, 2013. The Government of India holds 24.5 per cent equity in GSTN and all States, including NCT of Delhi and Puducherry, and theEmpowered Committee of State Finance Ministers
, together hold another 24.5 per cent. The balance 51 per cent equity is with non-government financial institutions -- HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, NSE Strategic Investment Co andLIC Housing Finance Ltd
. It has been set up primarily to provide IT infrastructure and services to central and state governments, tax payers and other stakeholders for implementation of the GST. NKD ARC