INFORMATION SHARING UNDER GST LAW

[Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal]

Consent based sharing of information furnished by taxable person [Section 158A]

The Finance Act, 2023 has inserted a new Section 158A to provide for consent based sharing of information furnished by taxable person. It has been made applicable w.e.f. 01.10.2023 vide Notification No. 28/2023-CT dated 31.07.2023. While introducing the new amendment, Finance Minister in budget speech stated as under:

Sharing of information

A new Section 158A in CGST Act has been inserted to enable sharing of the information furnished by the registered person in his return or application of registration or statement of outward supplies, or the details uploaded by him for generation of electronic invoice or e-way bill or any other details on the common portal, with other systems in a manner to be prescribed.

The rationale for the new insertion is to provide for the manner and conditions for sharing of the information furnished by the registered person in his application for registration or in his return filed or in his statement of outward supplies, or the details uploaded by him for generation of electronic invoice or E-way bill or any other details, as may be provided by rules, on the common portal with such other systems, as may be notified.

The gist of the provision is as follows:

• It provides for prescribing manner and conditions for sharing of the information furnished by the registered person in his return or in his application of registration or in his statement of outward supplies, or the details uploaded by him for generation of electronic invoice or E-way bill or any other details, as may be prescribed, on the common portal with such other systems, as may be notified.
• Conditions include :

1. particulars furnished in the application for registration under section 25 or in the return filed under section 39 or under section 44.
2. the particulars uploaded on the common portal for preparation of invoice, the details of outward supplies furnished under section 37 and the particulars uploaded on the common portal for generation of documents under section 68.
3. such other details as may be prescribed.

• Such sharing shall be subject to consent to be obtained.
• No action shall arise against the Government or common portal for any liability arising consequent upon such sharing.

Applicable Rule:

Vide Notification No. 38/2023-CT dated 04.08.2023, CBIC has since notified Rule 163 providing for consent based sharing of information and has been made applicable w.e.f. 01.10.2023.

Accordingly Rule 163 provides for the following:

• A registered person has to opt for sharing of information
• Such sharing of information may be related to information furnished in:

1. FORM GST REG-01 as amended from time to time
2. Return in FORM GSTR-3B for certain tax periods
3. FORM GSTR-1 for certain tax periods, pertaining to invoices, debit notes and credit notes issued by him, as amended from to time.

• The system will obtain the consent of the registered person and communicatethe consent to the common portal.
• In case of Form GSTR-1, he will have to obtain the consent of all the recipients, to whom he has issued the invoice, credit notes and debit notes during the said tax periods, for sharing such information with the requesting system and where the provides his consent, the consent of such recipients shall be deemed to have been obtained.
• The common portal shall communicate the information with this system.

CBIC has notified vide Notification No. 6/2024

CBIC has notified vide Notification No. 06/2024-Central Tax dated 22.02.2024 “Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit” for Enhanced Credit Eco-system Sharing. This is a system with which information may be shared by the common portal based on consent under sub-section (2) of Section 158A of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Conceived / developed by RBI, it aims to foster a large credit ecosystem. It enables digital access to information from various data sources for financial service providers and data service providers through an open, enterprise-grade IT platform with a standard, protocol-driven, open and shared API framework.

“Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit” means an enterprise-grade open architecture information technology platform, conceptualised by the Reserve Bank of India as part of its “Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies” dated the 10th August, 2023 and developed by its wholly owned subsidiary, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, for the operations of a large ecosystem of credit, to ensure access of information from various data sources digitally and where the financial service providers and multiple data service providers converge on the platform using standard and protocol driven architecture, open and shared Application Programming Interface (API) framework.