THE RAJASTHAN GOODS AND SERVICES TAX ACT, 2017 Circulars
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Body GST Circular No. F. 17 (228) ACCT/GST/2023/8360, Dated 10th May, 2023

All Additional Commissioners (Adm. /Head Quarter)

State Tax Department,

Subject: Guidelines for Special All-lndia Drive against fake registrations.

During the National Coordination Meeting of the State and Central GST officers held at New Delhi on 24th April 2023, the 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. 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.

2. 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.

3. In the National Coordination Meeting on 24th April 2023. it was discussed that while various system based and policy measures are being taken to address this problem of fake registration and fake input tax credit, there is a need of concerted and coordinated action on a mission mode by Central and State tax authorities to tackle this menace in a more systematic manner. It was agreed that a nation-wide effort in the form of a Special Drive should be launched on All-lndia basis to detect such suspicious/ fake registrations and to conduct requisite verification for timely remedial action to prevent any further revenue loss to the Government. It was decided that common guidelines may be issued to ensure uniformity in the action by the field formations and for effective coordination and monitoring of the action taken during this Special Drive. Accordingly, the following guidelines are issued for such concerted action on fake dealers/ fake billers in a mission mode:

(i) 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 and to conduct requisite verification and further remedial action to weed out these fake billers from the GST eco-system and to safeguard Government revenue.

(ii) Identification of fraudulent GSTINs: Based on detailed data analytics and risk parameters, GSTN will identify such fraudulent GSTINs for State and Central Tax authorities. GSTO 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. Apart from this the BID section of the State shall also explore the available data to identify such fraudulent taxpayers.

Besides, field formations may also supplement this list by data analysis at their own end using various available analytical tools like BIFA, BIU reports, Analytics portal, E-Way bill portal 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.

(iii) Information Sharing Mechanism: Successful implementation of the Special Drive would require close coordination amongst the State fax 'administrations, and between State and Central tax administrations. For this purpose, all CGST zones and States are appointing nodal officers. The Advisor, Additional commissioner, shall be the State Nodal officer for communication with GST council.

Special Commissioner (MEA) shall be the State coordinator for the Special Drive and he shall be responsible for ensuring and monitoring the compliance within time. He shall also ensure seamless flow of data received from GSTN and Central and other State Tax Administrations. Additional Commissioner (Adm.) of each zone of the State shall be the zonal nodal officer for their respective zone.

The Special Commissioner (MEA) will ensure that the data received from GSTN/ other tax administrations is made available to the concerned zonal nodal officer and they further made it available to the concerned jurisdictional Field formation immediately. He will also ensure proper coordination among all zones of the State. The Zonal Nodal officer shall closely monitor the progress of all circles/wards under his jurisdiction and communicate with other zones, if required, under intimation to the Special Commissioner (MEA). All Zonal Nodal officers shall also ensure that any cooperation required by other zonal jurisdiction is promptly provided by all circle /wards.

(iv) Action to be taken by field formations: On receipt of data from GSTN/BIU through the Special Commissioner (MEA). 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 RGST 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 RGST 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/ evidences, may be sent to the concerned tax authority having cross-empowered jurisdiction, as early as possible, in the format enclosed as Annexure-B, through the nodal officer mentioned in column 2 and according to condition mentioned in column 3 of the table:

S.No.	Nodal Officer	condition
1	2	3
1	Special Commissioner (MEA)	If concerned tax authority belongs to Central jurisdiction / Outside the State jurisdiction
2	Zonal Nodal Officer	If concerned tax authority belongs to State jurisdiction in other zones of Rajasthan (Under intimation to the Special Commissioner (MEA))
3	Jurisdictional Proper Officer	If concerned lax authority belongs to State jurisdiction within zone. (Under intimation to the Special Commissioner (MEA))

Action may also be taken to identify the masterminds/ beneficiaries behind such fake GSTIN for further action, wherever required, and also for recovery of Government dues and/ or provisional attachment of properly/ bank accounts, etc. as per provisions of section 83 of RGST Act. further, during the investigation/ verification, if any linked suspicious GSTIN is detected, similar action may be taken/ initiated in respect of the same.

(v) Feedback and Reporting Mechanism: An action taken report will be provided by the State 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 GSTI'N as per the format enclosed in Annexure-C.

4. Therefore, it is directed that all Zonal Nodal Officers shall send the compiled progress report of the zone in format of Annexure-A to the Special Commissioner (MCA) on the last working day of the week. 1'he Special Commissioner (MEA) will compile the reports received from all zones and send it to the State Nodal officer who will send it to the GST Council secretariat on the first working day after completion of the week.

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

(Dr. Ravi Kumar Surpur)

Chief Commissioner

State Tax,

Rajasthan, Jaipur

Annexure-A

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

Name of the State/ CGST Zone:

Week ending:..............

(Amount in Rs Lakhs)

S. No	No. of GSTIN s shared by GSTN/ DGARM	No. of GSTIN s identifi ed locally	Total no. of GSTINs to be verified	No. of GSTIN s for whom verific ation conduc ted	No. of Nonexisting GSTINs found	Action taken
						No of GSTINs suspended	No of GSTIN cancelled	ITC blocked under Rule 86 A		No of GSTINs where Provisional attachment made under section 83 of CGST Act
								Total no. of GSTINs	Total amount of ITC blocked
1	2	3	4(2+3)	5	6	7a	7b	7c	7d	7e

Total Amount of evasion of tax/ ITC detected	Total Amount recovered from GSTINs in the jurisdictio n of tax authority	No. of recipients (GSTINs) of such non-existing GSTINs to whom credit has been passed on		Number of recipient s GSTINs located outside jurisdicti on, details of which have been shared with the concerne d jurisdicti onal tax authority	Remarks
Total Amount of evasion of tax/ ITC detected		Within jurisdiction	Outside Jurisdiction		Remarks
8	9	10a	10b	11	12

Note:

1. The report is to be given for action taken up to week, i.e. for the period from start of the drive up to the end of the week, for which report is being sent.

2. A separate note may be enclosed in respect of any special modus operandi noticed during the week.

Annexure-B

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

A. Tax administration of the non-existent supplier:

B. Tax administration of the recipient:

C. Details of the supplier, recipients and the tax amount involved:

GSTIN of the nonexistent supplier, along with Name & Address	GSTIN of the recipient	Name & Address of the recipient(s)	Tax amount/ ITC involved (in Rs Lakhs)
	GSTIN of the recipient	Name & Address of the recipient(s)	CGST	SGST	IGST	Cess	Total
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8 (4+5+6+7)

D. Other relevant details, if any:

E. Details of enclosures (Panchnama/ Inspection report/ PV report/ Other relevant documents or evidences):

Place:
Date:
	(Signature)
	Name:
	Designation:
	Email address:

Enclosures: As above

Annexure - C

GSTIN-wise feedback regarding the outcome of the action against the suspicious GSTINs

Name of the State/ CGST Zone:

Date of submission:

S. No.	GSTIN	Legal Name/ Trade Name	Tax involved as estimated by GSTN/ DGARM/ tax administrati on (Rs. In Lakhs)	Was the lead correct? (Y/N)	If lead not correct, reason. (Choose one from - a/ b/ c/d) #	Action on GSTIN Registration (Suspended/ Cancelled/ No Action)	Dete cted tax amo unt (Rs. In Lakh s)	Recoveries made till date (Rs.)	Rema rks
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Note- Details are to be provided for each GSTIN covered in the drive, whether in the initial list or added subsequently

# For Column 6 - Reason for lead not correct - Please choose one of the following-

a. Data incorrect

b. Data correct but taxpayer had reasonable explanation

c. Data correct but taxpayer had complied before enforcement action

d. Case already investigated before enforcement action