Aadhaar must for GST as ghost traders plague platform

Aadhaar authentication for registration on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) platform will be made mandatory as a substantial number of ghost traders have appeared on the platform. Ghost traders have also been filing fake invoices on the platform.

The government has decided to make Aadhaar authentication a must for new registrations from January 1, 2020. As for the traders already registered under the GST, verification will be made mandatory.

As of now, there are about 1.23 crore registered taxpayers on the GST Network (GSTN) – a number earlier claimed by the government as a big success in its drive for the ‘one nation, one tax’ regime.

According to Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also heads the group of ministers on GSTN, the move comes in the wake of a lot of ghost traders appearing on the platform.

“Till now, for any dealer who wanted to register himself in the GST, giving Aadhaar number was optional. But in the last two years, we have found that a large number of ‘fly by night’ operators are registering themselves as GST dealers. And these traders make fake invoices also,” Modi said after the meeting of GoM on GSTN in Bengaluru.

He, however, declined to share the exact number of the ghost traders on the platform, stating that it would be difficult to give an exact number.

In case the trader decides not to opt for the Aadhaar verification, he will have to get the physical verification done for being registered on the GST Network. The move comes at a time when Union Finance Minister has been talking widely about the idea of faceless tax assessment.

Currently, if any trader wants to register on the GST platform, the trader can get the GST number within three working days. There is no physical verification done and Aadhaar authentication is optional.