CBIC to implement geotagging for verification of new GST registrations

The move comes after it was found that fake office places were created for verification; geotagging functionality is currently available to taxpayers registered in Delhi and Haryana

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The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is planning to strengthen the process of goods and services tax (GST) registration by using geotagging for verification.

Vivek Johri, president, CBIC, said that the board is planning to use biometric authentication for existing registration which it found suspicious or risky, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).

Johri said, "In the past, it was found that an office place was created just for verification and it was not there subsequently. To prevent this, the geotagging location of the office of an entity will be made mandatory."

The board has initiated a pilot project in some states to geotag the address for the exact location and once the pilot is complete, the report will be submitted to the GST Council to make it mandatory post the council's approval, he said.

Geotagging functionality is being rolled out in phases and is currently available to taxpayers registered in Delhi and Haryana.

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) introduced the feature on the GST portal in March this year.

Currently, officials use OTP-based authentication using Aadhaar card and PAN card.

"We are now going in for biometric authentication so that we can be absolutely certain that this is the person whose Aadhaar card has been used," Johri said.

The move comes after an ongoing drive against fake GST registration, in which the authorities detected the misuse of PAN and Aadhaar for fake registration, according to the ET report.

The officials had found 60,000 suspicious GST registrations. The verification process was completed for 50,000 registrations, out of which 25 per cent of GST registrations were found to be fake.