Centre eases scrapping GST registration to curb fraud

The Centre on Wednesday notified new norms for goods and services tax (GST) registration and reserved the right to cancel a taxpayer’s registration without giving an opportunity of being heard, in case an appropriate authority has reasons to believe the registration is liable to be cancelled.

A registration now will also be cancelled if input tax credit is claimed by violating GST Act provisions or if outward supplies exceed what is declared in the GST form for one or more tax periods.

During the cancellation proceedings, these taxpayers would remain suspended, the finance ministry said.

The move is expected to curb GST frauds. Tax authorities have booked fraudsters who have floated multiple dummy firms, obtained GST registration, issued fake invoices of goods and services without actual supply.

The tax department also increased the time limit for GST registration from three days to seven days. In case an applicant has opted for Aadhaar-based authentication, then each application will be followed by biometric-based Aadhaar authentication and a photograph.

Registered persons whose value of taxable supply in a month exceeds Rs 50 lakh will have to pay at least 1% of their GST liability in cash and will not be able to use the amount of ITC in electronic credit ledger from January 1.