CBIC Notifies The Guidelines For Processing Of Applications For GST Registration

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes And Customs (CBIC) notified the guidelines for processing applications for registration.

The instances have come to notice regarding unscrupulous elements obtaining fake/ bogus registration under GST and defrauding the Government exchequer. The fake/non-genuine registrations are being used to fraudulently pass on input tax credits to unscrupulous recipients by issuing invoices without any underlying supply of goods or services or both.

The menace of fake registrations and issuance of bogus invoices for passing off fake ITC has become a serious problem, in which the fraudulent people engage in dubious and complex transactions, causing revenue loss to the government.

Various modus operandi of obtaining such fake registrations have been detected by Central and State Tax administrations. In some cases, identities of other persons like PAN, Aadhaar, etc. have been misused without their knowledge to obtain GST registration.

Forged documents, such as forged electricity bills, property tax receipts, rent agreements, etc. are also being used as proof of principal place of business to obtain GST registration. In some cases, forged identities have been created by using the same photo of a person on different Aadhaar cards under different names.

In one of the cases detected recently, it has been found that a few fraudsters have obtained fake GST registrations on the basis of PAN and Aadhaar numbers of persons from economically weaker sections by fraudulently modifying the phone number on the Aadhaar cards of these persons by taking these persons to the Aadhaar Seva Kendra by giving a nominal cash amount under the guise of a government scheme and getting their Aadhaar Cards linked to dummy mobile numbers by using their thumb impression.

The Board has issued the guidelines for strengthening the process of verification of applications for registration at the end of tax officers in a uniform manner.

Immediately upon receipt of the application for registration in the Task List on ACES-GST application, the officer shall initiate the scrutiny process and verification of the details filled by the applicant in the application for registration in FORM GST REG-01 and the documents uploaded.

The proper officer may also check as to whether the registration(s) has been obtained on the same PAN earlier, either within the same State or other State(s). In such cases, the status of the said PAN as well as the compliance record of the said GSTINs may also be checked from the portal.

The Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner of the CGST Zones may closely supervise the status of the processing of the applications of registration, including physical verifications, within their zones. Wherever it is noticed that the application for registration has been granted deemed approval, the reasons for the same may be examined by the Principal Chief Commissioner for taking subsequent remedial action, if any, in a time-bound manner.

Instruction No. 03/2023-GST

Date: 14/06/2023

Click Here To Read The Instructions