The government has included the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) on the list of entities mandated to share information with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The GSTN is an information technology system which manages the GST portal.
This will give more power to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the anti-money laundering agency, to act against tax evasion within GSTN. The government, through a gazette notification, notified the exchange of information between ED and GSTN under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) to help in such investigations.
The government on Friday notified changes to Section 66 of the Act to add GSTN as the 26th entity to the list. The notification is regarding sharing of information between ED and GSTN under section 66(1)(iii) of PMLA. GSTN will now have to disclose information to the ED and FIU if a probe falls under their jurisdiction.
PMLA was enacted to tackle terror funding and drug trafficking. The PMLA Act also provides for confiscation of property derived from or involved in money-laundering.