Additional Commissioner (Administration) of Udaipur, Ashok Kumar informed that those businessmen or traders that are conducting their business per legal registration need not worry about the Fake Firm Registration Campaign being run from May 16 till July 15 in Udaipur. He alerted that fake information being spread on social media should not be taken into cognizance as the relevant departments will take action only if the registration is found to be fake. Door to door survey will be done in this campaign, he added.

Ashok Kumar was chairing the meeting between representatives of the Udaipur Tax Bar Association and Chartered Accountants Association of Udaipur at the Commercial Tax Department in Udaipur.

The need of this dialog was to address the doubts related to the Fake Firm Identification Campaign.  It has been a trend that such campaigns also become a nighmare for genuine tax payers. Various points were discussed in the context of the guidelines issued against fake registration. Joint Commissioner Manish Bakshi and Ravindra Jain informed about the campaign, which will run from May 16 to July 15.

Key Points for genuine tax payers:

• GSTIN Certificate needs to be displayed at prominent locations at the registered address of the business.
• Clearly demarcate  area in the rent agreements in case of multiple GST registrations on same address.
• Registration additional places of business in GSTIN.
• Authenticate  the Aadhar details on GST portal (recommended).
• Tax payers should review the supporting documents submitted at the time of GST registration and are maintained.
• Maintenance of accounts of each place of business.
• Review the compliance status of the supplier of goods or services - tax payers should ensure that their vendors are having clear compliance in terms of their returns (both GSTER1 and GSTR3B) and any lapses should be mitigated.

What are the consequences of Non Compliance

• Imposition of penalty up to Rs 50,000 under Sec 125 of CGST Act 2017 or specific penalty under Sec 122 of CGST Act 2017.
• Initiation of Cancellation of GST registration.
• Blocking of Input Tax Credit under Rule 86A.
• Recovery of Input Tax Credit if availed from any supplier found to be non-existent.

Under this campaign, verification will be done on the basis of information received from the headquarters and intelligence agencies and legal action will be taken if irregularities are found. Action will only be taken against traders operating under fake registrations and all the stakeholders in the fake registration chain will be rounded up.

The members of the Tax Bar were expected to provide correct information about the campaign to the dealers. Further, members of the Tax Bar were asked to connect on 0294-2583004 in case of queries. Members of the Tax Bar presented their doubts and gave suggestions as well regarding the campaign and assured full cooperation. The Additional Commissioner called for more and active participation in VAT and GST amnesty scheme.