Efforts are on to turn the GST Network, which handles the IT infrastructure of the new indirect tax regime into a state-owned company.

At present, private financial institutions are the majority owners in GSTN with 51 per cent stake, while the centre and states together hold 49 per cent, media reports said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asked Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia to “examine the possibility” of converting GSTN into a majority government company or a 100 per cent government company, news agency PTI quoted a source as saying.

The government is now thinking of hiking its stake in the company as the portal has been fully operationalised with stability in tax collection and implementation of e-way bill, the report said.

The source added that the government kept its stake in GSTN at 49 per cent and incorporated it as a private company to “allow adequate flexibility and freedom” to GSTN to “ensure timely implementation of the IT infrastructure” prior to the GST rollout.

Goods and Services Tax (GST), which subsumed over a dozen local taxes, was rolled out on July 1, 2017.