Furnishing Aadhaar details of persons mentioned in GST registration

This is to apprise you of recent notification no. no. 01/2020 – Central Tax, dated 01 January, 2020 issued by CBIC regarding furnishing of proof of possession of Aadhaar number of below mentioned persons:

• Vide section 95 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 issued on 01 August 2019, sub-section 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D in Section 25 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 has been inserted.
• Relevant extract of the sub-section 6A states as: “Every registered person shall undergo authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number, in such form and manner and within such time as may be prescribed: Provided that if an Aadhaar number is not assigned to the registered person, such person shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification in such manner as Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, prescribe. Provided further that in case of failure to undergo authentication or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or furnish alternate and viable means of identification, registration allotted to such person shall be deemed to be invalid and the other provisions of this Act shall apply as if such person does not have a registration”
• Thus, it can be inferred from the above provisions that the need to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number shall apply in the case of existing GST registrations in addition to new registrations as well
• Sub-section 6C mentions the provision specifically for every person, other than an individual. Relevant extract states as: “On and from the date of notification, every individual shall, in order to be eligible for grant of registration, undergo authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number, in such manner as the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, specify in the said notification. Provided that if an Aadhaar number is not assigned to an individual, such individual shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification in such manner as the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, specify in the said notification
• Sub-section 6C mentions the provision specifically for every person, other than an individual. Relevant extract states as: ”On and from the date of notification, every person, other than an individual, shall, in order to be eligible for grant of registration, undergo authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number of the Karta, Managing Director, whole time Director, such number of partners, Members of Managing Committee of Association, Board of Trustees, authorized representative, authorized signatory and such other class of persons, in such manner, as the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, specify in the said notification. Provided that where such person or class of persons have not been assigned the Aadhaar Number, such person or class of persons shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification in such manner as the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, specify in the said notification”
• Therefore, as sub-section 6C has been brought into effect from 01 January 2020, we understand that the persons as mentioned in sub-section 6B and sub-section 6C would be required to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or such alternate and viable means of identification in such manner as the Government may, on the recommendations of the Council, specify in the said notification(yet to be notified):
• Further, as per notification no. 01/2020 – Central Tax, dated 01 January, 2020, “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (23 of 2019), the Central Government hereby appoints the 1st day of January, 2020, as the date on which the provisions of sections 92 to 112, except section 92, section 97, section 100 and sections 103 to 110 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (23 of 2019), shall come into force”
• The rules regarding form, manner, time and other procedural aspects will be notified separately, and this compliance will be required to be done on and from the date specified therein

Trust the above suffices. In case of any doubt, please feel free to revert