Office of the Commissioner of State Goods and Services Tax
Department, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram

No. CT/1267/2019-C1

Dated 07/05/2019

Circular No. 4/2019

Sub: Registration under State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017- verification of details furnished- instructions issued- reg.

Registration is the most fundamental requirement for identification of taxpayers. It confers on the taxpayers certain rights and privileges which unregistered taxpayers do not possess. Registration of any business entity under the GST Law implies obtaining a unique number from the concerned tax authorities for the purpose of collecting tax on behalf of Government and to avail input tax credit for the taxes on his inward supplies. Without registration, a person can neither collect tax from his customers nor claim any input tax credit of tax paid by him. Hence registration under GST is an important and sensitive process. Therefore the Registering Authority has the added responsibility to confirm that taxpayers submitting applications to deal with goods or services, which are commercially important and prone to evasion, are carefully and faultlessly evaluated. Registration applications received in the GST Circle Offices need to be attended immediately. The Registering Authority shall go through the applications and enclosures carefully to see that the form is properly and completely filled up by the applicant. It should be ensured that the enclosures / documents are complete and are in the prescribed manner. Strict time lines have been stipulated for completion of different stages of the registration process.

Regarding registration in respect of evasion prone commodities such as Lottery, Iron and Steel, Flooring materials, Glass, Timber, Hill produce, Plywood, Arecanut etc. utmost care should be taken. The assessing Authority shall conduct a spot enquiry to ascertain the veracity of the information furnished in the application and also in the accompanying documents. The enquiry shall be sufficiently exhaustive to come to the conclusion that the applicant is genuine in all respects and there shall not be any reason to suspect the genuineness. As part of the enquiry, assessing authority must prepare the check list accompanied with this circular. Standard-Operating Procedure for visit to the taxable person’s premises for verification of registration particulars is given below:

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for visit to taxable person’s premises for verification of registration particulars

In the VAT regime, there used to be an element of integrity in the registration data base due to pre-registration visit by the assessing authority. In GST, because of the three- day deadline, pre-registration visits by the proper officer may not always be practicable. Hence, for the purpose of providing adequate safeguards and to establish the bona fides of the tax payer, it is envisaged to conduct a post-registration visit to the premises of the tax payer based on certain risk parameters.

In the first instance of this verification, the following risk criteria are to  be selected

Categories of migrated tax payers to be visited for verification

1. All migrated and new tax payers having transactions in plywood and areca nut.

2. All migrated tax payers who have not filed any return since migration.

3. Nil filers since migration.

Categories of new tax payers to be visited for verification

1. All tax payers who have defaulted in filing GSTR 3B for a period more than three return periods.

2. All tax payers who have filed `NIL’ returns in the case of GSTR 3B since the date of registration.

3. Those who have not filed returns since registration.

The list will be generated from the system centrally and will be forwarded to the districts. This first level of verification shall be done utilizing the intelligence squads. District Deputy Commissioners shall forward the list to the Inspecting Asst. Commissioners (Int.) concerned, who shall allocate the cases among the squads.

Procedure to be adopted:

1. Preparation – Verify the registration particulars filed by the taxable person in the GST back end. Verify the GSTR 3B returns. Verify GSTR 2A and e-Way Bill data, if any. Check the list of documents to be uploaded in GSTR REG-30 and whether the tax payer has uploaded the same. If uploaded, see whether it is legible.

2. Identify the business place.

3. Preferably, the visit should be conducted between 10 am and 5 pm.

4. Interview the tax payer / person in charge of the business place regarding the activities of the business.

5. Prepare the check list as detailed in Annexure- I. The remarks column in Annexure- I against each item should be filled up.

6. Take photographs of the business premises with an angle showing the extent of the business place, its approach, signs / boards etc.

7. After the visit, the details in the checklist shall be uploaded into the GST back end in form REG-30 (appropriately in the “comments” section of REG-30) which can be viewed by the proper officer.

8. The transactions conducted by ‘NIL’ return filers should be verified for the taxability of the transactions and issues in the matter should be reported to Deputy Commissioner (Int).

9. Tax payers who are suspected to be not genuine, should be red flagged and reported to the Deputy Commissioner and the proper officer for further verification and necessary action.

10. Tax payers should be advised to update registration particulars in both core field and non-core field amendments wherever necessary. www.taxheal.com

CHECK LIST FOR VERIFICATION OF BUSINESS PREMISES

Name of the Officer visiting:
Date and Time of visit:.
GSTN :

Address of place visited: Principal place of business / Additional Place of Business Geo-cordinate of the place visited:

The scope of this enquiry will be to find out and enlist the correctness of the information furnished in the registration application. All officers shall strictly follow these instructions to avoid bogus registration.

COMNIISSIONER OF STATE TAX

STATE GST DEPARTMENT, GOVT OF KERALA, 
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Present: Dr. RAJAN KHOBRAGADE I.A.S.

Dated: 19^th Nov 2018

Sub:- GSTN & GST Information System- Guidelines for troubleshooting – help desk at the Districts and State Head Quarters- reg:-

Kerala State has decided to develop the back end modules for the GST at their end. The development of the state GST backend software was entrusted with National Informatics Centre, Govt of India with the support of development team. The software is known as Kerala GST Information System. The state back end software is being developed based on the APIs released by Goods and Services tax network. So far we have developed Registration, Returns, Payment and ledger modules, Enforcement module etc. Most of the modules in production are running steadily without any major issues but certainly with few exceptions. We have also developed MIS for the use of officers.

The software development is a dynamic process. Kerala GST Information System will be developed based on the field requirements with the specific objective of improving GST administration in the State.

At the time of roll out of GST, the State has put in place an efficient mechanism of dealing with any quarries by having well trained manpower at the GST Facilitation Centers at the district and state headquarters. Subsequently at the time of roll out of eWay bill, help desks were constituted and embedded in GST facilitation Center. At Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode these GFCs have been further modernized and developed as Tax corner for doing awareness generation, quarry handling from dealers, tax practitioners and people.

The department has been taking all efforts to build capacities of officers with respect to Laws and also regarding GST Information System. However, it is felt that the officers face some difficulties.

The difficulties with respect to GSTN system faced by the Dealers and Practitioner is getting handled in a well streamline way. The mechanism set in by GSTN is to get the complaint registered and all these complaints are monitored by the IT Committee on fortnightly basis. Some few complaints directly reported to the State head quarters are also taken up with GSTN for mitigation.

Similarly the officers face some difficulties at the time of operating GST Information System, for mitigation of the same, it is felt that a similar mechanism as is set for GST through GST Facilitation Center to be put in place.

At present the officers are resorting to ad-hoc way of doing troubleshooting. In the above circumstances, the following orders are issued to streamline the grievance addressing mechanism with respect to GSTN and GST Information System of the department.

Order no 41/2018/GST Info System /CCT dt 19^th Nov 2018

1. It is hereby ordered that the officers of GFC, System Administrators and other officers who have undergone State level GST Information System Training shall be the part of the unit dealing with GSTN and GST information system related issues at the district level.

2. This unit will get the grievances from dealers, tax practitioners and officers.

3. At the State level GST info system unit shall handle the grievances with respect to GSTN and GST information system which are referred by the district team and also directly received.

THE ISSUE RELATED TO GSTN

4. The issues related to GSTN to be handled as per the protocol developed by GSTN. The dealer can raise the grievance and the ticket is generated. The grievance is followed up and sorted out.

5. Similarly, if dealers / tax practitioners are continuously facing issues in spite of taking it with GSTN online, they may report the grievance by taking screen shots and from the district unit the grievance may be raised to the State level unit.

6. From District unit or the State unit the grievances follow up and mitigation information shall be communicated back to the concerned.

7. Application submitted before the field officers has to verified by them to ensure that there is a demonstrable glitch on the Common Portal, due to which the process as envisaged in law could not be completed.

8. Further, officers have to ensure that Such application shall be accompanied by evidences (Screenshots) as may be needed for an identified issue to establish bonafide attempt on the part of the taxpayer have been made to comply the procedures as laid down in the law.

9. After verifying its electronic records and the application received, identify the issues involved in consultation with team constituted for this purpose. If the issue affects large section of tax payers, the case should be taken up with the concerned DCs. The DC on confirmation shall forward the case to the HQ with recommendation to take up the issue with the IT Grievance Redressal Committee through the nodal officer.

10. If the issue seems to be an individual one which is confined to a particular taxpayer alone after following the above-mentioned procedures, it shall be forwarded to the HQ with recommendation by the DC to take up the issue in the next IT committee.

11. Technical issues faced by the Officers are first reported to the System Administrators of the respective district and then to the GFC. Only those issues which cannot be solved at these level need to be elevated to HQ through the team. Such requests shall be accompanied by relevant ARN, GSTIN and screenshots and other relevant documents.

All such issues are required to be submitted to the mail astinfo.ctd@kerala.gov.in.

THE ISSUES RELATED TO KERALA GST INFORMATION SYSTEM

12. It may be noted that development team for Kerala GST Information System shall not attend directly to any quarry calls. All are instructed to raise the issues with the respective district teams and state team.

13. Dy Commissioners shall ensure that the field officers are first getting their quarries sorted out through the team at GFC and if the issue is unresolved then escalate to the officers mentioned below.

14.Technical issues with regard to GST Information System faced by the officers of the Assessment / Enforcement wing which requires immediate solution shall be informed to the GFC.

If they are not able to solve the technical issues, the information may be given on the following phone calls only.

Contact details of the technical team constituted at district level shall be informed to all Officers in the district.

All issues with respect to GST information system are required to be submitted to the mail gstinfo.ctd@kerala.00v.in

PrI Secretary & Commissioner

To, 

Addl Commissioner

All Joint Commissioners & Dy Commissioner Int Audit All Deputy Commissioners of districts and Intelligence OSD GST Info System

File No.CT/2697/2018-C1 [ Circular No. 9/2018 Dated 18.05.2018 ]

The Kerala Government has recently issued a circular containing instruction on reporting of data on application for Refund using RFD-01 to State or Central Tax Authorities. The Goods and Services Tax Network ( GSTN ) has developed a unique web-based tool for which data for the State has to be entered from the Headquarters by a Nodal Officer posted there. This is for effectively monitoring the issue of refund claims in GST and its disposal by each state. According to the Circular, the date wise data collected from each district has to be consolidated by the Nodal Officer in the Headquarters and the details has to be entered in the tool at the end of each working day. The Circular also provides 3 proformas, that are prepared for collecting the data from the districts which are attached as Annexures.

The 3 Proformas are:

Proforma I – Date wise refund data claimed/sanctioned by States from 1st April 2018 onwards shall be furnished in this proforma

Proforma II – Date wise refund data regarding sanctioned sent by State to Center from 1st April 2018 onwards shall be furnished in this proforma.

Proforma III – Date wise refund data from 6th November 2017 to 31st March, 2018 shall be furnished in this proforma. The Circular also directs the Deputy Commissioners to post Nodal Officers in each district for furnishing the details regarding refund each day in time. The name, e-mail and mobile number of the Nodal Officer may be communicated to csectioncct.ctd@kerala.gov.in It further states that the amount should be furnished in whole rupees and that if the data for a particular date till 17th May, 2018 is “NIL” then there is no need to furnish proforma for such date. Absence of proforma for a date will be treated as “Nil” report for that date. The Details should be furnished on daily basis to C Section of Commissionerate in the email id: csectioncct.ctd@kerala.gov.in As per the Circular, the Deputy Commissioners should ensure the accuracy of the data furnished and the time fixed should also be strictly followed as the matter is being monitored both by Chief Secretary and Secretary to Revenue, Government of India.

Circular No. 9/2018 Dated 18.05.2018 Download Click here

GST Refund : Free Study Material

Topic wise Commentary on GST Act of India