India’s ambitious network of financial data sharing called ‘Account Aggregator’ (AA) will have the GST Network integrated before 1st July 2023. The news came in from the government officials aware of the matter.
GST Network or GSTN is the technology interface between taxpayers and the government.
The move allows taxpayers to authorise lenders or credit providers to access their financial information seamlessly without manual intervention on a single platform. So, GST returns will be used as a valid statement for assessing loan eligibility.
‘Account Aggegator’ or AA was a recent initiative built for Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). UPI has over 75 lakh bank accounts linked to AA since its launch in September 2021, according to a non-profit firm promoting it. Over 1.4 crore taxpayers are registered with GSTN. Therefore, the integration of GSTN with the AA system is going to be a huge one. Many small businesses are said to be benefiting from the integration.
It will save a lot of paper, time and effort as lenders can easily fetch information from different sources for every person. It enables them to correctly assess the tax and improve scrutiny under the law. The data sharing between financial institutions and individuals will be faster, more reliable and transparent. There will be ease of credit access through digital lending for GST-registered persons as loan application will be in one step.
Presently, the loan sanction process at banks is taking much longer and is expected to be fixed with the launch of GSTN as a AA. Eight banks have already joined the system of AA being HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at annapoorna.m@clear.in
Annapoorna, popularly known as Anna, is an aspiring Chartered Accountant with a flair for GST. She spends most of her day Singing hymns to the tune of jee-es-tee! Well, not most of her day, just now and then.
