In response to businesses’ mounting worries about arbitrary delays and procedural obstacles, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) released a detailed set of guidelines on Friday to expedite the goods and services tax (GST) registration process.
The updated instructions are intended to reduce field officers’ discretionary actions, particularly their propensity to request papers that are not legally required. This comes after taxpayers filed complaints alleging harassment and inconsistent registration procedures across jurisdictions.
The Board stated that officers should rely only on the indicative list of documents specified in Form GST REG-01. It observed that applicants were often being asked to furnish extraneous documents such as the landlord’s permanent account number (PAN), Aadhaar, or even their photographs inside business premises.
“Any one document uploaded on the portal will be sufficient and no additional document should be requested,” according to the Board’s instruction.
In cases where premises are rented, the applicant needs to upload a valid rent or lease agreement along with any one supporting document — such as the latest property tax receipt, electricity bill, or municipal khata copy — to establish ownership of the premises by the lessor.
The CBIC also directed officers to not raise presumptive or irrelevant queries. It noted that in some cases, officers were questioning why the applicant’s residential address is not in the same city or state as the proposed place of business or raising objections over the type of goods or services being offered from a specific location.
“Officers…should not ask any presumptive query which is not related to the documents or information submitted by the applicant,” according to the revised guidelines.
The CBIC mandated that if the application is complete and not marked as dangerous, GST registration must be approved within seven working days in order to guarantee prompt processing.
After a physical examination of the facility, applications that fall into the risky category—such as those that lack Aadhaar authentication or that have been identified by backend data analysis—must be processed within 30 days.
At least five days prior to the 30-day deadline, officers must upload physical verification reports, which must include GPS-enabled photos.
