As the number of show cause notices being issued under the GST law is increasing day by day, it is seen that certain officers are issuing such notices and orders manually without serving the same in the GST portal. To curb the increase in issuance of such notices and orders manually, the CBIC has recently issued an instruction to the proper officers under GST thereby directing them to mandatorily issue the notices and orders on the GST portal.
Reference is made to the Instruction No. 04/2023-GST dated 23rd November 2023 issued on the said subject. Section 52, Section 73, Section 74, Section 122, Section 123, Section 124, Section 125, Section 127, Section 129 and Section 130 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the “CGST Act”) states that a notice is required to be issued by the proper officer to a person for demand and recovery of any amount of tax not paid or short paid/ amount of input tax credit wrongly availed/ amount of refund erroneously made, for recovery of interest and/ or for imposition of any penalty or fine on the said person.
Further, sub-rule (1) of rule 142 of Central Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the “CGST Rules”) states that along with such notices, a summary is also required to be served by the proper officer electronically on the portal in FORM GST DRC-01. Further, sub-rule (5) of rule 142 of the CGST Rules states that where any order is issued by the proper officer under Section 52 or Section 62 or Section 63 or Section 64 or Section 73 or Section 74 or Section 75 or Section 76 or Section 122 or Section 123 or Section 124 or Section 125 or Section 127 or Section 129 or Section 130 of CGST Act, summary of such order is also required to be uploaded electronically on the portal by the proper officer in FORM GST DRC-07, specifying the amount of tax, interest and penalty, as the case may be, payable by the person concerned.
In many cases it is noticed that such notices and order in Form DRC-01 & DRC-07 respectively, are being issued manually and not electronically on the GST portal. Non-issuance of the summary of such notices/ orders electronically on the portal is in clear violation of the explicit provisions of CGST Rules. Besides, serving/ uploading the summary of notices/ orders electronically on the portal not only makes the said notices/ orders available electronically to the taxpayers on the portal, but also helps in keeping a track of such proceedings and consequential action in respect of recovery, appeal etc. subsequent to issuance of such notices/ orders.
Accordingly, any deviation from this requirement under CGST Rules may adversely impact record keeping under GST. Further, such an action may also impact further proceedings of appeal and/ or recovery to be done seamlessly on the portal. Therefore, vide this instruction, the proper officers are directed to ensure that the summary of notices in Form GST DRC-01 and summary of order in Form GST DRC-07 is uploaded electronically on the GST portal.
Therefore, in a case where any notice or order is issued manually, the taxpayer can request for issuance of such notice or order electronically on the GST portal before proceeding to respond to the same.
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