SMOOTH TRANSITION TO GST
What is migration?
Under GST regime various central level taxes and state level taxes are summoned into one tax. Hence, for the smooth transition it is essential to migrate all existing assesses under various acts under GST regime.
Now, as same assesses may have registration under different acts with different information in different states. However, under GST model one assessee will be provided with one registration. So following issues will arise in this process:
- Data validation issue: Different information about contact no, address, authorize person about same assessee is available under state vat acts, entertainment tax, luxury tax, service tax, excise etc. There information needs to be validated before complete transition to GST.
- Data duplicate issue: Any duplicate data available with government needs to be removed.
- Data redundancy issue: Any irrelevant data with the department, which is of no use in modern GST regime, shall be removed.
So under para 142 of modern GST draft act provisions as to migration of exiting taxpayers are made as below:
(1) On the appointed day, every person registered under any of the earlier laws shall be issued a certificate of registration on a provisional basis in such form and manner as may be prescribed.
(2) The certificate of registration issued under sub-section (1) shall be valid for a period of six months from the date of its issue:
Provided that the said validity period may be extended for such further period as the Central/State Government may, on the recommendation of the Council, notify.
(3) Every person to whom a certificate of registration has been issued under subsection (1) shall, within the period specified under sub-section (2), furnish such information as may be prescribed.
(4) On furnishing of such information, the certificate of registration issued under sub section (1) shall, subject to the provisions of section 19, be granted on a final basis by the Central/State Government.
(5) The certificate of registration issued to a person under sub-section (1) may be cancelled if such person fails to furnish, within the time specified under sub-section (2), the information prescribed under sub-section (3).
(6) The certificate of registration issued to a person under sub-section (1) shall be deemed to have not been issued if the said registration is cancelled in pursuance of an application filed by such person that he was not liable to registration under section 19
So, in essence all existing tax payers will be issued a provisional registration certificates based on the data available with the department. The data will be validated by tax payer and relevant documents will be furnished. Final registration will be issued once the data gets validated. The above process is complete technology driven and minimal human interface. The main points of this process are as below:
- Existing registrants either with States or with Centre to be migrated to GSTIN – Process already initiated and state wise target dates are provided in the table below.
- VAT registration data to be used for migration of dealers in goods
- Service Tax registration data to be used for migration of service providers
- Registration is mandatory in case turnover is more than Rs 20 lacs
- Validation of existing registration information by GSTN (Goods and Service Tax Network)
- Verification / updating of migrated data by existing registrants within a specified period
- Issuance of GSTIN by GSTN
- Verification by Centre/State Authorities after issuance of GSTIN
The process of registration is already started and state wise start and end target dates are also given to all states and the same are enumerated below:
States | Start Date | End Date |
Puducherry, Sikkim | 08/11/2016 | 23/11/2016 |
Maharashtra, Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Chhattisgarh | 14/11/2016 | 30/11/2016 |
Gujarat | 15/11/2016 | 30/11/2016 |
Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram | 30/11/2016 | 15/12/2016 |
Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan | 16/12/2016 | 31/12/2016 |
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh | 01/01/2017 | 15/01/2017 |
Enrolment of Taxpayers who are registered under Central Excise Act/ Service Tax Act but not registered under State VAT | 01/01/2017 | 31/01/2017 |
Delta All Registrants (All Groups) | 01/02/2017 | 20/03/2017 |
For pre-preparedness following steps shall be taken by all existing assessee:
- All existing tax payers shall ensure that they have updated their email ids and password in vat / service tax registrations. Your provisional ID and password will be sent on mail ids and mobile nos available with department. Password and Email IDs of tax professionals will not work.
- Bank account no and IFSC code.
- Keep ready with following documents to upload on GST portal:
- Proof of constitution – partnership deed / other registration certificate depending on the type of constitution of business.
- Photograph of promoters/partners/Karta of HUF
- Proof of appointment of authorize signatory
- Photograph of authorize signatory
- Opening page of passbook / bank statement
Stages of registration:
Stage | Name | Remarks |
1 | Provisional | Initial status of the Provisional ID that is communicated by department before appointed date |
2 | Provisional pending signature | Once GST enrollment form is filled with all relevant fields and document and form is saved. |
3 | Migrated | After signing and submitting the form status will change to migrated. You can not change the application once it is submitted. |
4 | Active | Auto change to active status on appointed date. |
5 | Suspended | After six month from the appointed date, all provisional IDs that are not electronically sign will be suspended. |