The GST Council is set to discuss proposals to provide selected intelligence and police agencies with API-based access to certain GST payer data via NATGRID, raising security and privacy considerations amidst efforts to improve investigation efficiency.
The GST Council is expected to examine a proposal on 7 October that would give selected central intelligence and investigative agencies, along with State and Union Territory police forces using NATGRID, access to specified goods and services tax payer information, according to a senior government official quoted by BusinessLine.
The plan would create a more formal digital route for sharing limited GST data with law-enforcement bodies through application programming interfaces, or APIs, rather than relying only on case-by-case requests. NATGRID, which links central agencies and police forces to several data-holding systems, is intended to support counter-terrorism, national security and economic security work, and the official said the GST information could also help with risk-based checks on foreign investment, tax evasion, money laundering, organised cyber fraud and serious crime.
The data categories under discussion include registration records such as proprietor details and the date a business began operations, e-way bill information, inward and outward supplies over a defined period, branch mapping linked to PAN for companies with multiple branches, and supplies routed through e-commerce platforms, BusinessLine reported. A separate report by WhaleSbook said the council is due to discuss linking GSTN with NATGRID to improve tax probe efficiency, while also raising the need for strong privacy safeguards.
Those safeguards are likely to be central to the discussion. The official told BusinessLine that the GST Network has argued against unrestricted API access, warning that such a move could expose large parts of the registration and e-way bill database in individually identifiable form. The official also said the proposal may fit within existing GST rules on disclosure of taxpayer information, which already allow law-enforcement agencies to seek material in cases where proceedings have begun, including through coordination with jurisdictional officers or the Directorate General of GST Intelligence.
The broader context is that NATGRID was built to connect law-enforcement agencies with multiple databases to speed up investigations and reduce delays in obtaining information from different departments. Reports describing the platform say it brings together data from numerous government systems and is used by agencies including the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing, the National Investigation Agency and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, alongside GST intelligence officials.
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