Central Tax Circulars

CGST Circular 122/2019

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.

1) 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 8th 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”

3) Whereas DEN 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:

(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.

7) Officers who have been added as users in the DIN utility shall
electronically generate DINS, as follows:

(i) 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.

(ii) 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”.

(iii) 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.

(iv) The user shall login to the DIN utility by entering the OTP received.

(v) 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’.

(vi) 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”

(vii) 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.

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.

(viii) 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.

(ix) A new DIN shall be generated each time a request for generating it is
submitted to the System.

(x) 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.

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 http://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 8th 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) YYYY denotes the calendar year in which the DIN is generated,

(b) MM denotes the calendar month in which the DIN is generated,

(c) ZCDR denotes the Zone-Commissionerate-Division-Range Code of the field
formation/Directorate of the authorized user generating the DIN,

(d) NNNNNN denotes 6 digit alpha-numeric system generated random number.

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.