10 Year Imprisonment for Hacking Government GST Database

Recently, the senior officials for the Finance Ministry of India have announced that hacking the government GST database and its associated infrastructure present on the GST Network (GSTN) can lead to an imprisonment of 10 years. The finance ministry declared the GST database and its associated architecture as “protected systems” under the Income Tax Act.

As per the finance ministry, protected GST systems are a vital part of the critical information infrastructure of the government and their destruction can leave a major impact on national security, public health or safety, and country economy. Since the information stored inside is of national significance, such systems are eligible to get extra security cover.

A GST notification Check out the latest 2019 GST notification on tax and rate in PDF formats such as Central, Integrated, Union Territory in English and Hindi language dated 4th February highlights: “The Ministry of Finance hereby declares the Goods and Services Tax Database and its associated infrastructure dependencies installed at Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), as the protected system for the purpose of said Act.”

Getting access to the GST database and its associated dependencies will also be limited to authorized GSTN employees, authorized tax officers of State, Central government, Union Territories, accounting authorities and auditing agencies.

Authorized members, employees or service providers responsible for managing GSTN like Tech Mahindra and Infosys or third-party vendors would be given the access to GSTN network and databases, as highlighted in the notification.

The government can declare any computer resources as a protected system of national importance and can also impose a heavy monetary penalty and punishment up to 10 years of imprisonment, as per the sub-section (1) of Section 70 of the Information Technology Act, 2000

Read Also: Major GST Issues/Problems Seen Across India Till Now Have a look at the major issues/problems being faced by Indian people after the GST roll-out. We have enlisted reports and research as collected from the several sectors

A senior official from AMRG associates, on this matter, stated: “Incapacitation of GSTN database would be considered a blow to national security, economy, public health or safety and the person responsible for it would be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years together with a fine.”

Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) facilities of the Unique Identification Authority of India, its information assets, logistics infrastructure, and dependencies have already been declared as protected systems under the Act by the government.