GST Practitioners’ Approval May Happen Anytime Soon Due CBIC Instructions

Many chartered accountants and GST experts in India had applied to become a practitioner of GST, however, the applications of many of them are still under processing.

In a letter sent to officials, the CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) chairperson, Vanaja Sarna, has instructed them to speed up the process of registration and approval of GST practitioners. The step was taken in response to the continuous delay in the approval of registration applications of GST practitioners. Even after one year of GST implementation, many GST practitioners are yet to get their approval, even though they had applied months ago for practitioner registration.

The letter which was written on May 4 says, “I would urge the officials to expedite the process of approval of GST practitioners. A proactive approach in facilitating the enrolment and helping the applicants in case they have committed any bona fide mistakes while making the application will only further our cause of achieving a trade-friendly image for the department.”

“I applied on December 7, 2017. Since the last five months, there was no news on the same and the status was shown as ‘pending for processing’ on the GST portal. Recently, I received a letter (not a digital intimation) from the department stating that, due to some problems in the GST portal, it has been decided that the GST practitioner certificates will be given manually,” said Rajeev Khandelwal, who is a chartered accountant and indirect tax expert. In the letter, Rajeev was asked to submit documents in support to his education and professional knowledge along with a proof of address by May 4. In addition, he was also asked to provide a certification or written declaration to prove that he is a “person of sound mind“. Now, that might trouble some people.

Eligibility Condition for GST Practitioners

Those who are planning to apply for GST practitioner registration should know about the eligibility conditions. These include:

The person –

• Must be a citizen of India
• Should not have been adjudged as an insolvent
• Must be of sound mind (yes, that’s a condition)
• Should not have been convicted by the law of an offence with imprisonment of two years or more

Chartered accountancy qualification is not mandatory for registration. Commerce graduates or any tax expert can apply to become a GST practitioner.

It is, however, not clear as to who should provide the certificate confirming that the applicant is of sound mind.

As of now, the officials are also accepting a self-declaration in this regard with the aim to speed up the registration process. “The application had to be made online, the enrolling authority can be Centre or state. In my experience, several applications where the enrolling authority was at state level faced delays,” said a chartered accountant.

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Even the experts on various CA forums and online discussions portals are also advising users to re-apply for GST practitioner registration and select ‘Centre’ as the enrolling authority while applying.

Some of the applicants who had applied earlier for a GST practitioner registration were fortunate enough to have got the approval within one to three weeks. The remaining are now hopeful after the letter from the CBIC chief.