The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued an order in connection with sharing the details of the assessees with the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN).

The move aims at curbing tax evasion by the businesses by cross-checking of information available with both the tax bodies.

As per the order issued by the CBDT today, the Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or Director General of Income-tax (Systems), New Delhi shall be the specified income-tax authority for furnishing information respecting assessees to the Nodal Officer, Goods and Services Tax Network.

According to the order, the data/information to be furnished by the specified income-tax authority shall be, (a) Request based exchange of data, wherein, important financial fields which are captured in the Income Tax Returns (ITRs) such as (i) status of filing of ITR; (ii) turnover; (iii) gross total income, (iv)turnover ratio; (v)GTI range; (vi) turnover range and (vii) any other field, the modalities of which shall be decided by the concerned specified authorities. (b) Spontaneous exchange of data, the modalities of which shall be decided by the concerned specified authorities. (c) Automatic exchange of data, the modalities of which shall be decided by the concerned specified authorities.

While furnishing the information, opinion that sharing of such information is necessary for the purposes of enabling the specified authority in GSTN to perform its functions under the Goods and Services Tax.

“To facilitate the process of furnishing information, Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or Director General of Income-tax (Systems) Understanding with nodal officer, GSTN, which inter-a/ia would include modalities of exchange of data, maintenance of confidentiality, mechanism for safe preservation of data, weeding out after usage etc. The timeline for furnishing information shall also be decided by Pr. Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or Director General of Income-tax (Systems) in consultation with the concerned nodal officer and included in the said MoU,” the order said.

The Goods and Service Tax Network (or GSTN) is a non-profit, non-government organization. It will manage the entire IT system of the GST portal, which is the mother database for everything GST. This portal will be used by the government to track every financial transaction and will provide taxpayers with all services – from registration to filing taxes and maintaining all tax details.