Through a Circular No. 122/41/2019-GST made on 5th November 2019, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs mandate the quoting of DIN in all communications from 8th November 2019.
Subject of the circular was the generation as well as quoting of Documentation Identification Number (DIN) on any communication issued by the officers of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) towards taxpayers and other concerned individuals.
Considering the Government’s intents of transparency and accountability in indirect tax administration by means of widespread usage of information technology, the CBIC is implementing an arrangement for electronic (digital) generation of a Documentation Identification Number (DIN) for each and every communications sent by its offices towards taxpayers as well as other concerned individuals. In order to start with, the DIN shall be used for search authorization, summons, arrest memo, inspection notices as well as letters issued during any enquiry. This measure shall create a digital directory for maintaining an appropriate audit trail of such communication. Also, it shall provide the receivers of such communication a digital facility in the direction of ascertaining their genuineness. Consequently, the DIN shall be extended towards other communications. Also, there is a proposal where the communication itself would bear the DIN generated from the system.
The Board while exercising its power under section 168(1) of the CGST Act, 2017, Section 37B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 directed that no search authorization, summons, arrest memo, inspection notices as well as letters issued during any enquiry would be issued by any officer under the Board towards a taxpayer or any other individual, on or after the 8th November, 2019 without a computer-generated Documentation Identification Number (DIN) being accordingly quoted prominently in the body of such communication. The digital platform for generation of DIN is held on the Directorate of Data Management (DDM)’s online portal “cbicddm.gov.in“
While DIN is a compulsory requirement, in special circumstances communications might be issued without an auto-generated DIN. Though, this exception shall be made only after recording in writing the reasons in the file. Also, such communication would expressly mention that it was issued without a DIN. The urgent situations in which communication might be issued without the electronically generated DIN are:-
• when communication relating to the investigation/enquiry, verification etc. is requisite to issue at short notice or in exigent situations and the authorized officer is outside the office in the discharge of his official responsibilities.
4. The Board also directed that any stated communication which doesn’t bear the electronically generated DIN as well as is not covered by the exceptions stated in para 3 above, would be treated as invalid and may be deemed to have never been issued.
5. Any communication which has been issued without an electronically generated DIN in the exigencies would be regularized within 15 working days of its issuance, through:
• gaining the post-facto approval of the immediate superior officer regarding the justification of issuing the communication without the electronically generated DIN;
• compulsorily electronically generating the DIN after post facto approval; and
• printing the electronically generated Pro-forma having the DIN and filing it in the required file.
6. To implement this new facility of electronically generating the DIN, every Principal Chief Commissioners or Principal Director Generals or Chief Commissioners or Director Generals is required to ensure that every of their authorized officers who have to electronically generate the DIN are directly mapped as users in the System and are familiar with the procedure for auto-generating a DIN. With the purpose of successfully adding users for the DIN utility as well as enable them to electronically generate DINs, the following measures must be followed:
• The officer's details must be added as users of the DIN Utility for instance name, designation/Branch as well as official e-mail Id would be fed into the System (the office of the officer being added would be auto-populated);
• The dashboard (Manage User) is given with add/activate/inactivate/delete and edits options which could be availed for adding, activating, inactivating, editing as well as deleting the users as follows:
(a) Add:- Officers name or designation and branch could be added by means of selecting proper designation and branch from the drop-down menu provided against the individual column.
(b) Activate:- When the user activated the URL and furnishes the user name and password as well as OTP, the authorization would be processed by the system and would be reflected as Green Radio button.
(c) Inactivate:- Any already added user, who might be diverted on temporary basis to attend to few other assignments in the case of administrative demand, could be deactivated for time being through dragging the Green Radio button to the left by means of which it would become red in colour showing the user’s spot as inactive. A confirmation e-mail shall also be sent towards the particular user.
(d) Edit:- This icon shall always appear with Red Radio button (specifying the inactive position of the user) and is furnished for modifying or editing the name/designation/branch/e-mail Id of the officer which is to be authorized.
(e) Delete:- This icon could be used for deleting the already added user profile in case the officer is permanently transferred out from that office.
7. Officers who were added as users in the DIN utility would electronically generate DINS, as follows:
• Each authorized user would receive an e-mail on his official e-mail Id after the user is mapped into the DIN utility. This e-mail would furnish the user of their user name and password. The same e-mail would also give an URL online link.
• Once clicking on the given URL link, the user would be guided towards the DIN utility within CBIC-Sanchar on the DDM’s online portal “cbicddm.gov.in/”.
• The user would be required to submit their mobile number on the screen page for verification and then click “Get OTP” button for getting a One Time Password (OTP) on the mobile.
• The user is then required to login to the DIN utility by entering the OTP received.
• When the user is successfully logging in, the user would see the Dashboard showing different categories, for total number of summons, search authorizations, inspection notices as well as arrest memos issued through the user. Primarily, the figures under each category would be ‘zero’.
• The user is then required to click “Generate DIN” on the Menu Bar at the left-hand side of the screen and give the details of the communication that is to be issued by choosing its category as well as selecting the proper title of the communication from the dropdown menu “Choose Document”.
• When the filling of all the required information is completed, the user must click on the “View and Save DIN” button, the user then would see a preview page. However clicking the “Back button”, mistakes or typographical errors, if any, could be corrected. Also, the user has the choice of partially entering details in the System at a time and coming back later in the direction of retrieving the partially entered document (automatically saved in the System), fill in the remaining details, as well as generates a DIN on a later occasion.
• The final step is to click on the “Generate DIN” button and a DIN would be generated for that specific communication by the System. The generated DIN could not be edited.
• A new DIN would be generated every time a request for generating it is submitted towards the System.
• When the DIN is generated, the user is required to print the page having the DIN and file it in the required file while also quoting the DIN on the communication.
8. The authenticity of the communication could be ascertained by receiver (public) by entering the CBIC- DIN for that communication in a window VERIFY CBIC-DIN on the website of CBIC cbic.gov.in. However, in such cases where the entered DIN is valid, information relating to the office that issued that communication as well as the date of generation of its DIN shall be displayed on the screen.
9. As above-mentioned, in the primary phase on 8th day of November 2019, the “Generate DIN” option would be used for Search Authorizations, Summons, Inspection Notices, Arrest Memos, as well as letters issued in during any enquiry. The set format of the DIN would be CBIC-YYYY MM ZCDR NNNNNN where,
• YYYY signifies the calendar year, in which the DIN is generated,
• MM signifies the calendar month, in which the DIN is generated,
• ZCDR den signifies the Zone-Commissionerate-Division-Range Code of the field formation/Directorate of the authorized user, who is generating the DIN,
• NNNNNN signifies 6 digit alpha-numeric system generated random number.
10. The electronic generation of DIN as well as its usage in official communications to taxpayers as well as other concerned individuals is a transformative initiative. The Principal Chief Commissioners/Principal Director Generals / Chief Commissioners/Director Generals should become fully acquainted with the procedure involved. They are also commanded to make certain that sufficient and appropriate training is provided to every concerned officer under their charge to make certain its successful implementation. It is reiterated that any stated document which has been issued without the electronically generated DIN would be treated as invalid and will be deemed to have never been issued. Thus, it is obligatory upon all officers concerned in the direction of firmly adhering to these instructions.
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