Procedure for Migration to GST Regime

Nitish Agnihotri

Introduction

Though the target date of 1st April 2017 seems challenging after the non-passage of CGST, IGST and Compensation law into the parliament during the winter session, the journey of implementation of nationwide uniform tax i.e. Goods and services tax has begun with the migration of registration of all the existing registrant under Central Excise, Service tax and VAT from 8th November 2016 starting from the state of Puducherry and Sikkim. For every state schedule for enrolment is given and initially, taxpayers who are registered in respective State Vat law are allowed to migrate themselves in GST at common GST portal. Enrolment of existing taxpayers who are registered under Central Excise or Service Tax Law but not in State Vat Law can apply for migration from 1st January to 31st January 2017.

Now one obvious question will be raised as to whether the migration of existing registration into the GST has any legal validity? Section 166 of Revised Model GST law talk about migration of existing taxpayers to GST. According to Sub-section (1) to section 166, after enactment of the GST Act, every person registered under existing law (i.e. Central Excise, Service tax and VAT) and having valid PAN shall be issued a certificate on the provisional basis for the period of 6 months. On submission of necessary documents, the registration provided provisionally shall be converted into final registration. Since, CGST, SGST and IGST Acts are yet to pass into the parliament of India and respective State assemblies, there is no legal validity for migration of registration as of now or rather the activity which was started from 8th November 2016 is voluntary and is called as enrolment for migration of registration to GST.Revised Model GST law talk about migration of existing taxpayers to GST. According to Sub-section (1) to section 166, after enactment of the GST Act, every person registered under existing law (i.e. Central Excise, Service tax and VAT) and having valid PAN shall be issued a certificate on a provisional basis for the period of 6 months. On submission of necessary documents, the registration provided provisionally shall be converted into final registration. Since, CGST, SGST and IGST Acts are yet to pass into the parliament of India and respective State assemblies, there is no legal validity for migration of registration as of now or rather the activity which was started from 8th November 2016 is voluntary and is called as enrolment for migration of registration to GST.

As stated earlier the enrolment procedure is being taken up in stepped manner, so that taxpayers of each State shall get an appropriate time for enrolment. The procedure of enrolment can be done at GST Common portal i.e. www.gst.gov.in. As mentioned in the title of this article, the taxpayer must keep some important things ready in his computer for smooth enrolment as the site sustains for a short duration. In order to avoid a problem of session out on GST common portal, readers are advised to keep all things ready as stated in each step below

(1) Creation of User ID & Password on Common Portal: – This is the first step towards enrolment for migration to GST, which start with provisional ID and password as given to the taxpayer by respective State Vat department through dealer’s login. On entering provisional Id & Password, GST Common portal will ask for Email Id and Mobile number of the authorized person on which two different onetime passwords shall be sent. Entering the one-time password of both Email Id & Password simultaneously is mandatory to create a new User Id & Password. Five questions shall be asked to reset the password in the event of forgot the password. Taxpayers are therefore advised to take out a print before submitting a list of security questions. Initially, i.e. up to 1st April 2016, Email Id and Mobile number of authorised person is Non-editable.

(2) Details of Business: –After successful creation of user Id & Password, a taxable person needs to login into GST common portal. After login to the dashboard itself, a provisional GST number shall be seen, which shall start with state code followed by 10-digit pan number and 3 more system generated digits. In very first tab taxpayer has to enter various business details. Some details like PAN number, Legal Name are auto-populated from the system and rest of the details such as various registration details along with the date of registration as provided under Central Excise, Service tax, VAT, Luxury Tax, Entertainment Tax, IEC, CIN number etc. shall be filled manually.

In addition to above a scanned copy of proof of constitution i.e. Shop Act License/Factory License in case of individual, Partnership Deed in case of Partnership Firm, or Registration Certificate/Proof of Constitution in case of Society, Trust, Club, Government Department, Association of Person or Body of Individual, Local Authority, Statutory Body and Others etc.) shall be attached. Scanned copy of proof of constitution should be in jpeg or pdf format with the maximum size of 1 MB.

(3) Details of Proprietor, Partner, Managing and Whole Time Director, Karta: – In this tab details (of Proprietor, Partner, Managing and Whole Time Director, Karta) such as Full Name, Full Name of Father/ Husband, DIN Number, Date of Birth, Mobile Number, Gender, Designation, PAN Number, Aadhar Number shall be entered.

In addition to above details of Residential Address (Building/Flat No, Name of Premises, Road, Locality, State, District, Pin code etc.) and the Scanned copy of Photograph (In JPEG format only with the maximum size of 100 KB) is also required to be uploaded on the common portal. It is important to note that details as specified above such as name, date of birth etc. should be matched with the details mentioned on PAN Card. Validation error may occur in the case of a mismatch.

(4) Details of Authorized Signatory: – All the details as stated in point no 3 above are also common for authorised signatory. Apart from that a scanned copy of board resolution or authority letter evidencing appointment of such person as an authorised signatory along with acceptance letter shall be uploaded on GST common portal. For this purpose, board resolution or authority letter along with acceptance letter should be in pdf/jpeg format with the maximum size of 100KB. Separate board resolution or authority letter should be made for each signatory.

Maximum 10 peoples including Proprietor, Partner, Managing and Whole Time Director or Karta as the case may be can be appointed as an authorised signatory for such business entity. Board resolution or authority letter is also required for Partner, Managing and Whole Time Director or Karta if they want to act as an authorised signatory

(5) Details of Principal Place of Business:- Details such as Address (Building/Flat No, Name of Premises, Road, Locality, State, District, Pin code etc.), Official Email-Id, Mobile Number, Office Telephone Number, Nature of possession of premises (i.e. Own, Rented, Leased, Consent, Shared), Scanned copy of Proof of Principal place of business i.e. in PDF/JPEG format with maximum size of 1 MB is required to be given under this tab. Following documents can be used a proof of Principle place of business

It is important to note that principle place of business means a place from where major activities of the business are carried out. It may happen that the registered office and principle place of business are different. In addition to above nature of activities from such premises such as Factory / Manufacturing, Wholesale Business, Retail Business, Warehouse/Deport, Bonded Warehouse, Service Provision, Office/Sale Office, Leasing Business, Service Recipient, EOU/ STP/ EHTP, SEZ , Input Service Distributor, (ISD), Works Contract etc. are also to be mentioned at the time of registration

(6) Details of Additional Place of Business: – Additional places includes factory, office, godown, warehouse or any other place where the taxable person stores his goods or provides or receives any goods and/or services. All the details as specified for the principal place of business are equally applicable for the additional place of business also.

If principle person send any input/capital goods to job worker for job worker and if he wants to supply such goods after such process from the premises of job worker and if job worker is not registered under GST, then principle has to declare place of business of job worker as his place of business in terms of proviso to Sub-clause (b) to Sub-Section (1) of Section 55.

(7) Details of Goods & Service supplied: – HSN wise details of 5 top goods should be specified. HSN codes as stated here are the same as stated under existing Central Excise Law. Similarly, details of top 5 services along with the Service Accounting code should also be given under the details of services. For this purpose, service accounting codes are same as stated under existing service tax law.

(8) Details of Bank Accounts: – A taxpayer needs to provide top 10 bank account numbers along with IFSC code and Scanned Copy of the first page of Bank Statement/passbook of each bank account. A copy of bank statement can be scanned in PDF/JPEG format with the maximum size of 500 KB in the case of bank statement and 100 KB in the case of bank passbook.

(9) Verification: – After filling an application a person can submit the application using Class-II or Class-III digital signature (DSA). Filling of an application with DSA is mandatory for Companies and Limited liability partnership. A taxpayer other than Company and LLP can also file an application by using e-signature option. i.e. by using Aadhar number of the authorized person. GST Common portal shall send a request using inter-portal connectivity to UIDIA system to send the one-time password (OTP). UIDIA system shall send OTP to registered email ID & Mobile number registered against such Aadhar number.

Before validation of application, the applicant must register his DSA on GST portal under register/update DSA. For this, he must download Em-signer application, which is available on GST common portal. Apart from this Windows 32/64 bits OS must be installed into his computer system. Applicant should also see whether browser version which he is using is 10+ in the case of Internet Explorer, 49+ in the case of Google chrome, and +45 in the case of Mozilla Firefox. DSA of the following person can be used for validation of GST enrolment application form

After successful verification, GST Common Portal system will generate acknowledgement containing acknowledgement receipt number (ARN) within next 15 minutes after submission& that is the last step of enrolment for migration to GST. This number should be kept on the record for all future correspondence with GST common portal as far as registration of taxpayer is concerned. After the appointment date of GST Act, the taxpayer can track the status of his application using ARN number.

As mentioned earlier starting of migration of registration to GST shows the serious willingness of the government to implement GST but whether it is going to be a reality from 1st April 2017? After clear washout of winter session, many people are concluding that GST will come from September 17. It is needless to mention here that in politics and particularly in Indian politics anything can happen. Non-passage of GST law in winter session doesn’t mean that GST can’t be a reality from April 17. If the government decides, they can call a special session of parliament or they may pre-pone budget session and if the government brings GST bills as money bill it will be much easier for them to clear it due to the majority in Lok Sabha. Let’s hope soon the political fray will end and GST will become reality by 2017.

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