In the much awaited move, it has come to light that the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has finally given its consent for developing a portal, 'Goods and Service Tax Network' (GSTN), which has been proposed by none other than Mr. Nandan Nilekani .

In order to suffice the purpose, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be created for introducing the information technology infrastructure (GSTN).

Confirming the news, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who is also the Chairman of the Empowered Group of State Finance Ministers, claimed that the proposal made by the Chairman of the Empowered Group on IT Infrastructure for GST, Nandan Nilekani, has been given sound approval by the Empowered Committee on this portal.

It has been widely known that lack of agreement between the centre and the states has delayed the introduction of the landmark legislation, which is expected to introduce greater transparency in the taxation regime in the country.

Iterating the benefits of the approved proposal, Nilekani said: "When the GST comes, it will be a common portal for returns, registration, payments and for MIS (monthly income scheme)... This is a very important step because for the first time you will have common PAN based registration across the country for all taxpayers and you will be able to reduce tax evasion by watching the tax returns to different tax authorities”.