The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) issued overall guidelines on Friday to make the Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration easier. These guidelines have been issued due to unilateral delays between traders and increasing concerns about procedural obstacles. The objective of these revised guidelines is to stop the method of demanding the documents not compulsory in the issues of regional officers, not especially under the law. In fact, taxpayers have complained about harassment and irregularity in the registration process in various jurisdiction.
The board said that officers should believe the documents of the list lodged under the form GST REG-01. It has been observed that applicants are usually demanded from documents outside this list such as the owner’s permanent account number (PAN), Aadhaar or photographs inside the business premises. According to the board guidelines, ‘It will be sufficient to upload any of these documents on the portal and no other documents should be required.’
In the event of renting the campus, the applicant needs to upload a valid rent or lease agreement and along with it is required to upload any of the documents of property tax, electricity business or municipal account copy. This document establishes ownership on the premises of the lease.
The CBIC directed the officials not to raise estimates or irrelevant questions. In some cases, the authorities asked the question as to why the detection of the applicant is not detected in the proposed city or state or why special goods and service have been provided from select places. Information has been received about asking some such questions. Therefore, the revised guideline asked the question, “The officials should not ask questions about the irrelevant questions from the information given by the applicant. ‘The GST registration should not be given in seven working days in case of incomplete or risky indication.
In the event of the application rising in the risk – such as without authentication of the base or being marked by analysis of data, it should be compulsorily given in 30 days of physical testing of the premises. Officials are expected to upload the physical certification report including GPS based photographs at least five days before the prescribed 30 -day period. In case of demanding any other document except these prescribed documents, permission will have to be obtained from the Deputy Commissioner or Assistant Deputy Commissioner.
Officials have been instructed not to raise questions about small deficiencies until they are important to establish evidence of business or ownership.
First Published – April 18, 2025 | 10:38 PM IST
