Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a non-profit non-government company that serves as the interface between the government and the taxpayers. The government owns 49 per cent of the share in GSTN and rest of the 51 per cent stake is owned by private players such as - LIC Housing Finance, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and NSE Strategic

An IT infrastructure and service, GSTN takes care of the front-end services of GST registration, returns and payments to all taxpayers.

A unique and complex IT initiative, GSTN is the first service that seeks to establish a uniform interface for the taxpayer and a common and shared IT infrastructure between the Centre and States. GSTN has to support more than 3 billion invoices per month and the subsequent return filing for 65 to 70 lakh taxpayers. It will also take care of - invoices, various returns, registrations, and payments & refunds.

GST is a destination based tax, and hence, the inter-state trade of goods and services (IGST) would need a robust settlement mechanism amongst the States and the Centre. GSTN serves as a strong IT Infrastructure and Services backbone to enable capture, processing and exchange of information amongst the stakeholders (including taxpayers, States and Central Government, Bank and RBI).

To be able to pay taxes through GSTN, the taxpayers need to register themselves on GST portal and get a Goods and Services Tax Identification Number (GSIN). The 15 digits GSTIN will serve as the one identification number for taxpayers.