Guidelines for GST Special All-India Drive against fake registration

Issue of unscrupulous elements misusing the identity of other persons to obtain fake/ bogus registration under GST, with an intention to defraud the Government exchequer was deliberated during the National Co-ordination Meeting of the State and Central GST officers.

Such fake/ non-genuine registrations are being used to fraudulently pass on input tax credit to unscrupulous recipients by issuing invoices without any underlying supply of goods or services or both. This menace of fake registrations and issuance of bogus invoices for passing of fake ITC has become a serious problem, wherein 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, forged documents, such as forged electricity bills, property tax receipts, rent agreements, etc. are being used as proof of principal place of business to obtain GST registration.
• In one of such recent cases detected by Gujarat State Tax authorities, it has been found that a few fraudsters have obtained fake GST registrations on the basis of PAN and Aadhaar number of persons from economically weaker sections without their knowledge.

The following guidelines are issued for such concerted action on fake dealers/ fake billers in a mission mode:

Period of Special Drive: A Special All-India Drive may be launched by all Central and State Tax administrations during the period 16th May 2023 to 15th July 2023 to detect suspicious / fake GSTINs.

Identification of fraudulent GSTINs:

• Based on detailed data analytics and risk parameters, GSTN will identify such fraudulent GSTINs for State and Central Tax authorities. GSTN will share the details of such identified suspicious GSTINs, jurisdiction wise, with the concerned State/ Central Tax administration for initiating verification drive and conducting necessary action subsequently.
• Field formations may also supplement this list by data analysis at their own end using various available analytical tools like BIFA, ADVAIT, NIC Prime, E-Way analytics, etc, as well as through human intelligence, Aadhar database, other local learnings and the experience gained through the past detections and modus operandi alerts.
• GSTN may separately provide a note to the field formations, regarding the tools available in BIFA which may be useful during this drive.

Information Sharing Mechanism: A nodal officer shall be appointed immediately by each of the Zonal CGST Zone and State to ensure seamless flow of data and for coordination with GSTN/ DGARM and other Tax administrations. The Nodal officer shall also ensure that any cooperation required by other jurisdictions under his control is promptly provided.

Action to be taken by field formations:

• On receipt of data from GSTN/DGARM through the Nodal Officer, a time bound exercise of verification of the suspicious GSTINs shall be undertaken by the concerned jurisdictional tax officer(s).
• If, after detailed verification, it is found that the taxpayer is non-existent and fictitious, then the tax officer may immediately initiate action for suspension and cancellation of the registration of the said taxpayer in accordance with the provisions of section 29 of CGST Act, read with the rules thereof.
• Further, the matter may also be examined for blocking of input tax credit in Electronic Credit Ledger as per the provisions of Rule 86A of CGST Rules without any delay.
• Additionally, the details of the recipients to whom the input tax credit has been passed by such non-existing taxpayer may be identified through the details furnished in FORM GSTR-1 by the said taxpayer.
• Where the recipient GSTIN pertains to the jurisdiction of the said tax authority itself, suitable action may be initiated for demand and recovery of the input tax credit wrongly availed by such recipient on the basis of invoice issued by the said non-existing supplier, without underlying supply of goods or services or both. In cases, where the recipient GSTIN pertains to a different tax jurisdiction, the details of the case along with the relevant documents/ evidence, may be sent to the concerned tax authority, as early as possible, in the format enclosed as Annexure-B in the instruction.

Feedback and Reporting Mechanism:

• An action taken report will be provided by each of the State as well as CGST Zones to GST Council Secretariat on weekly basis on the first working day after completion of the week in the format enclosed as Annexure-A.
• If any novel modus operandi is detected during the verification/ investigation, the same may also be indicated in the said action taken report.
• On conclusion of the drive, GSTIN-wise feedback on the result of verification of the shared suspicious GSTINs, will be provided by the field formations to GSTN/ DGARM, as per the format enclosed in Annexure-C.

National Coordination Committee:

• A National Coordination Committee headed by Member [GST], CBIC and including Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners Delhi and Bhopal CGST Zones and Chief Commissioners/ Commissioners of State Tax of Gujarat, West Bengal and Telangana shall monitor the progress of this special drive.
• National Coordination Committee will meet periodically for this purpose. GST Council Secretariat will act as the secretariat of this National Coordination Committee.
• The Committee will also be assisted by GSTN and Principal Commissioner, GST Policy Wing, CBIC
• GST Council Secretariat will compile the reports received from various formations and make it available to the National Coordination Committee immediately.

The unique modus operandi found during this special drive will be compiled by GST Council Secretariat and presented before National Coordination Committee, which will be subsequently shared with Central and State Tax administrations across the country.

These guidelines are being issued as per the decision of the National Coordination Committee.

Annexure A: Weekly Report on Action taken in Special All-India Drive against Fake Registrations

Annexure B: Intimation about details of the recipients of the non-existent suppliers detected during the special All-India drive against fake registrations.

Annexure C: GSTIN-wise feedback regarding the outcome of the action against the suspicious GSTIN

Detail instruction is attached herewith for ready reference.

 This Article is only a knowledge-sharing initiative and is based on the Relevant Provisions as applicable and as per the information existing at the time of the preparation. In no event RMPS & Co. or the Author or any other persons be liable for any direct and indirect result from this Article or any inadvertent omission of the provisions, update etc. if any.

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