46 GST Service Centres to check Registration Fraud via Biometric Authentication

46 GST Service Centres in Madhya Pradesh will use biometric-based Aadhaar authentication to prevent fraudulent taxpayers from registering for goods and services tax (GST) in the first place.

By getting rid of fraudulent taxpayers who cause losses to the exchequer, this initiative seeks to expedite the registration process.

It is expected that these centres, which will be run jointly by the central and state GST departments, will be operational by the last week of November.

“Sewa kendras are being set up throughout the state to combat fraudulent registrations and remove them from the system in their early phases. At these centres, biometric authentication will be carried out by taking the applicant’s photo and physically verifying all original documentation. Forging bills and uploading counterfeit documents of people not involved in the business are common methods for registering a fraudulent firm. We will be able to filter out cases at an early stage through these centres,” said SGST additional commissioner Rajani Singh. ”

According to experts, fraudulent taxpayers use the online system to create GST registrations and conduct fraudulent transactions; however, biometric-based Aadhaar authentication is believed to keep an eye out for these fictitious registrations. The CGST will run the five GST service centres in MP, which are located in Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal, Jabalpur, and Gwalior. The SGST will oversee the remaining centres.

An average of fifteen new GST registration applications are filed per day in Indore. “The system will classify applications based on historical data, and if it discovers any fraudulent registration on the same PAN or illicit transactions, it will be flagged off and all such suspicious cases will be routed to sewa kendra for authenticating Aadhaar and physically verifying documents like rent agreements and electricity bills by summoning the owner,” Singh stated.

The applicant will be allocated an appointment and undergo biometric authentication at the service centre.