The number of states relying on Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) to handle their complex back-end processing has increased from six to 21 in less than three years. The back-end operations would include tasks such as tax settlement, assessment, and refunds, etc.
GSTN is a not-for-profit entity owned by the Centre, states and non-government financial institutions, and is building the technology backbone for the new tax regime to be rolled out from April 1, 2017.
The rise can be attributed to the fact that the more and more number of states are realising that that they can just reply on the common application that GSTN is building instead of having their own technology systems in place.
The states which are already a part of GSTN include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab soon joining the bandwagon after initially planning to build their own systems.
Bihar was one of the earliest states that decided to not build their own technology and took to GSTN as an option.
