Last updated: March 20th, 2020 3:15 PM

GST Network and Common Portal

GST Network was incorporated on the 28th of March, 2013 as a non-profit company, promoted by the Central and State Governments along with Non-Governmental Institutions. The GST Network serves help with the implementation, regulation and administration of GST - smoother and better, through state-of-the-art information technology and infrastructure facilities. The common GST portal is being maintained by the GST Network. The back-end IT infrastructure and GST website development and maintenance has been outsourced to Infosys.

Objectives of the GST Network

• Provide common and shared IT infrastructure and services to the Central and State Governments, Tax Payers and other stakeholders for implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST)
• Provide common Pan based registration services
• Enable filing of returns and processing of payments for all states on a shared platform
• Partner with other agencies for creating an efficient and user-friendly GST eco-system
• Facilitation, implementation, and standardization of providing services to the taxpayer through the common GST portal
• Helping Tax authorities in improving Tax compliance and transparency of Tax administrative system
• Carry out research, study best practices and provide training to the stakeholders or Tax authorities
• Provide efficient back-end services to the Tax Departments of the Central Governments or State Governments, based on request
• Develop Tax-Payer Profiling Utility(TPU) for Central and State administration
• To ensure confidentiality on information regarding taxpayers
• Provide analytics and Business Intelligence to tax authorities
• Provide training to stakeholders
• Maintenance of interface between the common GST portal and tax administrative systems

Click here to read on Manual Filing and Processing of GST Refund Claims

Purpose of Common GST Portal

Registration

The GST portal is the only mode through which any eligible person or entity can apply and obtain GST registration. You can also obtain GST registration through IndiaFilings with Expert Support.

Payment Management

The GST portal has a comprehensive ledger system for maintaining details pertaining to taxes paid, taxes due and input tax credit available. Details of your payments can be found in the cash ledger, while the liability ledger provides details of the taxes to be paid and electronic credit ledger provided details of input tax credit available. It also allows various payment methodologies like payment through Debit or Credit cards, Demand drafts, Cheque etc, subject to certain conditions.

Return Filing and Processing

Filing of returns is mandatory for all registered tax-persons, irrespective of business activity or sales or profitability during the return filing period. This is done with the help of the common GST portal. You call also contact an IndiaFilings business adviser for any assistance on this part. For more details, about GST return filing, contact IndiaFilings.

Uploading of GST invoices

Invoices are mandatory documents to be produced and maintained by most of the people engaged in supplies, and the like, and invoices in GST comes with a benefit. Under GST, detail of all invoices issued must be periodically uploaded on the GST Common Portal. Further, in the case of B2B invoices, invoice level data like invoice date, invoice number, GSTIN of the recipient, taxable amount, taxes due must be updated on the GST Common Portal. You can retrieve all your created invoices through the common portal using your invoice reference number, which takes away the compulsion to carry a duplicate copy while transporting the goods.

Invoice Matching

The biggest advantage of the GST Common Portal is invoice matching across all taxpayers. On uploading B2B invoices, the GST Common Portal matches the invoices with the respective suppliers and auto-populates GSTR-2A. Details in GSTR-2A can be verified by the taxpayer to file GSTR-2 return. Hence, through invoice matching facilities, the GSTN makes the GST return filing process simpler for taxpayers while ensuring input tax credit is accurately distributed.

Notifications and Information Dissemination

GST rules and regulations are always subject to constant changes. The common portal helps in creating awareness with regards to notifications or amendments. Further, the GST common portal has a strong authentication system whereby any changes or access to the GST Portal is notified by way of SMS or Email to the registered taxpayer to prevent fraud or misuse.

Status updates

The status of your GST registration application, input tax credit claim, GST refunds, etc can be viewed through the common portal. This makes it convenient for Authorities and Tax-payers alike.

Forms available in GST Common Portal

There are 147 GST forms available in the GST portal for various sections which are listed below.

1. Registration - 14/11
2. Returns - 11/4
3. Payments - 7/1
4. Refund - 3/1
5. Assessment - 6/11
6. Input Tax Credit (ITC) - 4/0
7. Demand and Recovery - 3/22
8. Appeal - 1/1 -2
9. Advance Ruling - 2/1
10. Composition - 6/2
11. Goods and Services Tax Practitioner (GSTP) - 4/3
12. E-Way Bill - 2/3
13. Compounding - 1/1
14. Enforcement - 15/1 - 1
15. Transition Forms - 3/0

Out of 147 forms, the applicability is divided into 2 major categories and they are:

• Taxpayers - 82 GST Forms
• Tax Officials - 62 GST Forms
• Others - 3 GST Forms

The List of GST Forms applicable to Taxpayers, tax officials and others can be accessed from the below: [pdf-embedder url="https://www.indiafilings.com/learn/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Forms_Available_Update_04122019.pdf"]