GSTN is now a part of AA network: RBI

In a major development announced by RBI, the Goods and Services Tax network  (GSTN) has now been included to the account aggregator (AA) network as a financial information provider (FIP) which will help facilitate cash flow lending to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

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An Account Aggregator (AA) is RBI- regulated entity licensed by NBFC-AA which helps an individual securely and digitally access or share information from one financial institution to any other regulated financial institution in the AA network.

The AA network had been under a discussion with the GSTN network for their onboarding for a long time, as this would enable the financial institutions to access the data regarding small businesses and to extend loans to such companies.

As per RBI circular, the Department of Revenue shall be the regulator of GSTN for this specific purpose and Goods and Services Tax Returns, viz. Form GSTR-1 and Form GSTR-3B will be the financial information. The financial information providers for the same includes banks, non-banking financial companies, asset management companies, insurance companies and pension funds.

As per recent data, approximately 2.47 million cumulative accounts have been linked to the AA network while 2.5 million cumulative accounts of consent request have been successfully fulfilled.