Circular No. 122/41/2019-GST
GST/INV/DIN/01/2019-20
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
(GST-Investigation)
New Delhi, the 5° November, 2019
To:
All Principal Commissioners/Principal DGs/Chief Commissioners/Director
Generals/Principal Commissioners/Principal ADGs
All Joint Secretaries/Commissioners, CBIC
Subject: Generation and quoting of Document Identification Number
(DIN) on any communication issued by the officers of the
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to tax
payers and other concerned persons- reg.
In keeping with the Government’s objectives of transparency and
accountability in indirect tax administration through widespread use of information
technology, the CBIC is implementing a system for electronic (digital) generation of a
Document Identification Number (DIN) for all communications sent by its offices to
taxpayers and other concerned persons. To begin with, the DIN would be used for
search authorization, summons, arrest memo, inspection notices and letters issued in
the course of any enquiry. This measure would create a digital directory for
maintaining a proper audit trail of such communication. Importantly, it would provide
the recipients of such communication a digital facility to ascertain their genuineness.
Subsequently, the DIN would be extended to other communications. Also, there is a
plan to have the communication itself bearing the DIN generated from the system.
2. The Board in exercise of its power under section 168(1) of the CGST Act,
2017/ Section 37B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 directs that no search
authorization, summons, arrest memo, inspection notices and letters issued in the
course of any enquiry shall be issued by any officer under the Board to a taxpayer or
any other person, on or after the 8° day of November, 2019 without a computer-
generated Document Identification Number (DIN) being duly quoted prominently in
the body of such communication. The digital platform for generation of DIN is hosted
on the Directorate of Data Management (DDM)’s online portal “cbicddm.gov.in”
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3. Whereas DIN is a mandatory requirement, in exceptional circumstances
communications may be issued without an auto generated DIN. However, this
exception is to be made only after recording the reasons in writing in the concerned
file. Also, such communication shall expressly state that it has been issued without a
DIN. The exigent situations in which a communication may be issued without the
electronically generated DIN are as follows:-
(i) when there are technical difficulties in generating the electronic DIN, or
(ii) when communication regarding investigation/enquiry, verification etc. is
required to issued at short notice or in urgent situations and the
authorized officer is outside the office in the discharge of his official
duties.
4. The Board also directs that any specified communication which does not bear
the electronically generated DIN and is not covered by the exceptions mentioned in
para 3 above, shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed to have never been
issued.
5. Any communication issued without an electronically generated DIN in the
exigencies mentioned in para 3 above shall be regularized within 15 working days of
its issuance, by:
(i) | obtaining the post facto approval of the immediate superior officer as
regards the justification of issuing the communication without the
electronically generated DIN;
(ii) | mandatorily electronically generating the DIN after post facto approval;
and
(iii) printing the electronically generated pro-forma bearing the DIN and filing
it in the concerned file.
6. In order to implement this new facility of electronically generating the DIN, all
Principal Chief Commissioners/Principal Director Generals/Chief
Commissioners/Director Generals shall ensure that all their authorized officers who
have to electronically generate the DIN are immediately mapped as users in the
System and are conversant with the process for auto-generating a DIN. In order to
successfully add users for the DIN utility and enable them to electronically generate
DINs, the following steps shall be followed:
(i) The details of officers to be added as users of the DIN Utility such as
name, designation/Branch and official e-mail Id shall be fed into the
System (the office of the officer being added will be auto populated);
(ii) The dashboard (Manage User) is provided with
add/activate/inactivate/delete and edit options which can be availed for
namely adding, activating, inactivating, editing and deleting the users as
follows:
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(a) Add:- Officers name/designation and branch can be added by
selecting appropriate designation and branch from the drop down
menu provided against the respective column.
(b) Activate:- Once the user activates the URL and provides the user
name and password and OTP, the authorization will be processed
by the system and shall be reflected as Green Radio button.
(c) Inactivate:-Any already added user who may be diverted on
temporary basis to attend to some other assignment in the case of
administrative exigency, can be deactivated for time being by
dragging the Green Radio button to the left by which it will become
red in color showing the user’s position as inactive. A confirmation
e-mail will also be sent to the respective user.
(d) Edit:- This icon will always appear with Red Radio button (indicating
the inactive position of the user) and is_ provided for
modifying/editing the name/designation/branch/e-mail Id of the
officer to be authorized.
(e) Delete:- This icon can be used for deleting the already added user
profile if the officer is permanently transferred out from that office.
i. Officers who have been added as users in the DIN utility shall electronically
generate DINs, as follows:
(i)
(il)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
Every authorized user shall receive an e-mail on his official e-mail Id
after he/she is mapped into the DIN utility. This e-mail shall provide the
user of his/her user name and password. The same e-mail shall also
provide an URL online link.
After clicking on the said URL link, the user shall be guided to the DIN
utility within CBIC-Sanchar on the DDM’s online portal “cbicddm.gov.in”.
The user shall be required to submit his/her mobile number on the
screen page for purposes of verification and then click “Get OTP” button
for receiving a One Time Password (OTP) on the mobile.
The user shall login to the DIN utility by entering the OTP received.
After successfully logging in, the user shall see the Dashboard
displaying different categories, for total number of summons, search
authorizations, inspection notices and arrest memos issued by the user.
Initially, the figures under each category shall be ‘zero’.
The user shall click “Generate DIN” on the Menu Bar located at the left
hand side of the screen and enter the details of the communication to
be issued by choosing its category and selecting the appropriate title of
the communication from the dropdown menu “Choose Document”
After filling in all the required information, and clicking on the “View &
Save DIN” button, the user shall see a preview page. By clicking the
“Back button”, mistakes or typographical errors, if any, can be rectified.
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(viii)
(ix)
(x)
Also, the user has the option of partially entering details in the System
at a time and coming back later to retrieve the partially entered
document (automatically saved in the System), fill in the remaining
details, and generate a DIN on a later occasion.
The last step is to click on the “Generate DIN” button and a DIN shall be
generated for that particular communication by the System. The
generated DIN cannot be edited.
A new DIN shall be generated each time a request for generating it is
submitted to the System.
After the DIN is generated, the user shall print the page bearing the DIN
and
file it in the concerned file while also quoting the DIN on the
communication.
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ee are provided with Provide User's Mobile bser to enter GF?
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Online tink on their email Shoe {One Time Password}
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generate DIN betore generating DIN
User can view and verity
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ae Br every request is
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Print DIN option ts
available after successtul
generation of DIN
8. The genuineness of the communication can be ascertained by recipient
(public) by entering the CBIC- DIN for that communication in a window VERIFY
CBIC-DIN on CBIC’s website www.cbic.gov.in. Only in those cases where the DIN
entered is valid, information about the office that issued that communication and the
date of generation of its DIN would be displayed on the screen.
9. As aforementioned, in the first phase beginning on 8" day of November, 2019,
the “Generate DIN” option shall be used for Search Authorizations, Summons,
Inspection Notices, Arrest Memos, and letters issued in the course of any enquiry.
The format of the DIN shall be CBIC-YYYY MM ZCDR NNNNNN where,
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
YYYY denotes the calendar year in which the DIN is generated,
MM denotes the calendar month in which the DIN is generated,
ZCDR denotes the Zone-Commissionerate-Division-Range Code of the
field formation/Directorate of the authorized user generating the DIN,
NNNNNN denotes 6 digit alpha-numeric system generated random
number.
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10. The electronic generation of DIN and its use in official communications to
taxpayers and other concerned persons is a transformative initiative. Principal Chief
Commissioners/Principal Director Generals / Chief Commissioners/Director Generals
must become fully familiar with the process involved. They are also urged to ensure
that adequate and proper training is provided to all concerned officers under their
charge to ensure its successful implementation. It is reiterated that any specified
document that is issued without the electronically generated DIN shall be treated as
invalid and shall be deemed to have never been issued. Therefore, it is incumbent
upon all officers concerned to strictly adhere to these instructions.
(Commisdioner GSFinvy——
14. Hindi version to follow.
Copy to:
i. Chairman, CBIC& All Members, CBIC
ii. DG Tax Payer Services, CBIC
lil. Pr. DG(Systems and Data Management)
Iv. Web-master for uploading on the official website
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