Two-pronged strategy. Centre plans to make geotagging, biometric authentication mandatory to curb fake assessees

In order to make the Goods & Services Tax (GST) system tougher for unscrupulous elements, but more helpful for genuine business, the government is examining two pronged strategy related with ‘place of business.’

While the first part of the strategy is related with converting the pilot geo tagging for place of business to mandatory for all new registration and latter for all, the second part is about recognising co-working place as place of business for services sector. At the same time, effort to enhance the scope of biometric authentication to curb fake assessees.

Talking to media on the sidelines of an event here to mark 6^th anniversary of GST, Vivek Johri, Chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) said the tax authority is trying to see how the system can be tightened further to provide a clean system. Accordingly, tax authorities are looking at whether the registration verification needs to be strengthened further. There are two parts of this process: verification of the place of business and establishing the identity of the person.

Also read: Central GST Authority found fake invoices amounting ₹63K crore, collected ₹3k crore

Johri said that in many cases, tax officials found the address given in the registration application is bogus or belongs to somebody else. So, “we have started a pilot geotagging in 1-2 States where we are trying to geo tag the address so that exact location of that address is available to us. In past, we found that an office place is created only for verification & subsequently when you go there you find there is no longer office and it is all a play act,” he said.

Geocoding

According to GST portal, functionality for geocoding the principal place of business address (i.e. the process of converting an address or description of a location into geographic coordinates) is available for taxpayers registered in Delhi and Haryana it will gradually be opened for taxpayers from other States and UTs. This feature aims to ensure the accuracy of address details in Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) records and streamline the address location and verification process.

Also read: GST boosted revenue buoyancy of States, says Finance Minister Sitharaman

After the pilots, the infrastructure requirements will be evaluated and details will be worked out. Johri informed that once the pilots are over, the matter will go again to the GST Council for further action. “While geotagging will be mandatory for all entities, biometric for existing and new registrations will be compulsory if they are detected as risky on the parameters,” he said.

OTP based authentication

For long tax authorities have been using OTP based authentication for establishing identity of applicants. Now, “we are going to go in for biometric authentication also. Which would mean that person in suspicious cases will be asked to go to an aadhaar centre to have his biometrics verified so that we are sure that this is his aadhaar card,” Johri said.

Talking about demand from services sector for recognition of co-working place, he said that under GST law, one have to have a definite place of business where his records are kept and accounts are maintained so if tax authorities want to audit or look into their books or accounts. “There is a difficulty in agreeing to what they want us to accept but it is under examination,” he said.

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