The income tax department has taken a good initiative to curb the fake certifications by non-CAs. Earlier they were misrepresenting themselves as CAs but now it is not possible as ICAI has made mandatory the generation of UDIN which is a Unique Document Identification Number if you are issuing tax audit reports or any kind of certification. All the attestations and certifications by CAs will require the generation of UDIN from the ICAI website.
This initiative is in line with other ongoing initiatives by the income tax department. The income tax portal has made an integration with the ICAI portal as a result of which validation of UDIN generated from the ICAI portal is required whenever any tax audit or certificate is uploaded by any CA. With effect from 27 April 2020, the income tax e-filing portal has already mandated the quoting of UDIN for certification or attestation.
This step will stop the submission of fake or incorrect reports as it will not get permission at the income tax portal until authenticated by ICAI. UDIN provided by the CA for submitting the reports will be first validated online with ICAI. If UDIN is not submitted by Chartered Accountant while submitting reports or certificates, the portal will accept the submission with a condition that CA will update the UDIN within 5 days from the date he is making a submission on the income tax portal. If CA fails to submit the UDIN, within 15 days, that report will be considered as invalid submission. This decision of ministry will save many people from fraud CAs.
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