Goods and Services Tax

As the country is gearing up to usher in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from next month, experts have cautioned that the government as well as firms should firewall their systems to deal with increasingly more complex cyber threats. Billed as the country’s biggest taxation reform since independence, the Goods and Service Tax (GST) is expected to kick off from July 1. Experts opined there could be a rise in the number of security incidents, if the government and private players do not prepare themselves adequately to address the potential cyber risks around the GST. PwC India Partner and Leader (Cyber Security) Sivarama Krishnan said there are several threats that companies could get exposed to as a result of the new tax regime. Threats as a result of data leak, unauthorised changes to master data and involvement of third parties — who will have access to a company’s data — are set to increase.