By CA Gauri Chadha
Did you know that the GSTIN number printed on your bill could just be a fake number? Seller can make a fake invoice and charge you tax but may never put that money in the government’s kitty. Last year (2019) the GST intelligence arm of CBIC brought in light a fraud wherein one individual has made 90 fake firms and issued fake invoices worth 7000 crores. Fake invoices are becoming a big means of fooling the consumer and the governments too.
But you as an aware consumer can teach these fraudsters a lesson. Next time when you see an invoice with a GSTIN number you can actually check its authenticity.
The 15-digit GSTIN stands for Goods and Service Tax identification number. It’s an alphanumeric Pan based unique code which is allocated by the government to all the sellers of products and services in our country. This number is issued state wise.
Lets understand what the 15 digit stands for-
First 2 numbers- State code of the registered entity
Next 10 characters – PAN of the registered entity
Next Number- a number which is base on the number of registration within a state
Next character – Z alphabet by default
Last number- a check code which may be a sign or a number
For a prima facie check you can ask for the PAN of the seller and check if it matches the digit 3 to 10 . Well if you and i know this then any fraudster would be smart enough to crack this code . So this check may not be sufficient and you can reach out to GST’s official website i.e www.GST.gov.in. You can verify a vendor/seller’s GSTIN by either entering the GST number or the PAN under the ‘Search Taxpayer’ tab on the GST portal. Once you enter the GSTIN you will be prompted for a CAPTCHA . After this you will get all the details of the vendor such as legal and trade name of business, centre and state jurisdiction, date of registration, type of taxpayer(regular or composition) , date of cancellation if GST has been cancelled and details of all the returns filed till date. You can run a similar search with the PAN number of the entity.
So next time when you are handed over a bill and you have a doubt regarding the GSTIN you know how to check and make a complaint . This is important to ensure that the taxes that we are paying lands up in the right pocket.
