|
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central
Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs
(investigation-Customs)
***
Circular No. 37/2019
New Delhi, dated, 5th November 2019.
To:
All Principal Chief Commissioners of Customs,
All Principal
Director Generals,
All Chief Commissioners of Customs,
All Director
Generals,
All Principal Commissioners of Customs
All Principal Additional
Director Generals,
All Commissioners of Customs
All Additional Director
Generals
All Joint Secretaries/Commissioners, CBIC.
Madam/Sir,
Subject: Generation and quoting of Document Identification Number (DIN) on any
communication issued by the officers of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and
Customs (CBIC) to tax payers and other concerned persons- reg.
In keeping
with the Government’s objectives of transparency and accountability in indirect
tax administration through widespread use of information technology,the CBIC is
implementing a system for electronic (digital) generation of a Document
Identification Number (DIN) for all communications sent by its offices to
taxpayers and other concerned persons. To begin with,the DIN would be used for
search authorization, summons, arrest memo, inspection noticesand letters issued
in the course of any enquiry.This measure would create a digital directory for
maintaining a proper audit trail of such communication. Importantly, it would
provide the recipients of such communication a digital facility to ascertain
theirgenuineness. Subsequently, the DIN would be extended to other
communications. Also, there is a plan to have the communication itself bearing
the DIN generated from the system.
2. The Board in exercise of its power
under section 151A of the Customs Act, 1962 directs that no search
authorization, summons, arrest memo, inspection notices and letters issued in
the course of any enquiry shall be issued by any officer under the Board to a
taxpayer or any other person, on or after the 8th day of November, 2019 without
a computer-generated Document Identification Number (DIN) being duly quoted
prominently in the body of such communication.The digital platform for
generation of DIN is hosted on the Directorate of Data Management (DDM)’s online
portal “cbicddm.gov. in”
3. Whereas DIN is a mandatory requirement, in
exceptional circumstances communications may be issued without an auto generated
DIN. However, this exception is to be made only after recording the reasons in
writing in the concerned file. Also, such communication shall expressly state
that it has been issued without a DIN. The exigent situations in which a
communication may be issued without the electronically generated DIN are as
follows:-
(i) when there are technical difficulties in generating the
electronic DIN, or
(ii) when communication regarding
investigation/enquiry, verification etc. is required to issued at short notice
or in urgent situations and the authorized officer is outside the office in the
discharge of his official duties.
4. The Board also directs that any
specified communication which does not bear the electronically generated DIN and
is not covered by the exceptions mentioned in Para 3 above, shall be treated as
invalid and shall be deemed to have never been issued.
5. Any
communication issued without an electronically generated DIN in the exigencies
mentioned in paras 3 above shall be regularized within 15 working days of its
issuance, by:
(i) obtaining the post facto approval of the immediate
superior officer as regards the justification of issuing the communication
without the electronically generated DIN;
(ii) mandatorily electronically
generating the DIN after post facto approval; and
(iii) printing the
electronically generated pro-forma bearing the DIN and filing it in the
concerned file.
6. In order to implement this new facility of
electronically generating the DIN, all Principal Chief Commissioners /Principal
Director Generals/Chief Commissioners/Director Generals shall ensure that all
their authorized officers who have to electronically generate the DIN are
immediately mapped as users in the System and are conversant with the process
for auto-generating a DIN. In order to successfully add users for the DIN
utility and enable them to electronically generate DINs, the following steps
shall be followed:
(i) The details of officers to be added as users of
the DIN Utility such as name, designation/Branch and official e-mail id shall be
fedinto the System (the office of the officer being added will be auto
populated);
(ii) The dashboard (Manage User) is provided with
add/activate/inactivate/delete and edit options which can be availed for namely
adding, activating, inactivating, editing and deleting the users as follows:
(a) Add:- Officers name/designation and branch can be added by selecting
appropriate designation and branch from the drop down menu provided against the
respective column.
(b) Activate:- Once the user activates the URL and
provides the user name and password and OTP, the authorization will be processed
by the system and shall be reflected as Green Radio button.
(c)
Inactivate:-Any already added user who may be diverted on temporary basis to
attend to some other assignment in the case of administrative exigency, can be
deactivated for time being by dragging the Green Radio button to the left by
which it will become red in colorshowing the user’s position as inactive. A
confirmation e-mail will also be sent to the respective user.
(d) Edit:-
This icon will always appear with Red Radio button (indicating the inactive
position of the user) and is provided for modifying/editing the
name/designation/branch/e-maid Id of the officer to be authorized.
(e)
Delete:- This icon can be used for deleting the already added user profile if
the officer is permanently transferred out from that office.
7. Officers
who have been added as users in the DIN utility shall electronically generate
DINs, as follows:
(i) Every authorized user shall receive an e-mail on
his official e-mail Id after he/she is mapped into the DIN utility. This e-mail
shall provide the user of his/her user name and password. The same e-mail shall
also provide an URL online link.
(ii) After clicking on the said URL
link, the user shallbe guided to the DIN utility within CBIC-Sanchar on the
DDM’s online portal “cbicddm.gov.in”.
(iii) The user shall be required to
submit his/her mobile number on the screen pagefor purposes of verification and
then click “Get OTP” button for receiving a One Time Password (OTP) on the
mobile.
(iv) The user shall login to the DIN utility by entering the OTP
received.
(v) After successfully logging in, the user shall see the
Dashboard displaying different categories, for total number of summons, search
authorizations, inspection notices and arrest memos issued by the user.
Initially, the figures under each category shall be ‘zero’.
(vi) The user
shall click “Generate DIN” on the Menu Bar located at the left hand side of the
screen and enter the details of the communication to be issued by choosing its
category and selecting the appropriate title of the communication from the
dropdown menu “Choose Document”
(vii) After filling in all the required
information, and clicking on the “View & Save DIN” button, the user shall see a
preview page. By clicking the “Back button”, mistakes or typographical errors,
if any, can be rectified. Also, the user has the option of partially entering
details in the System at a time and coming back later to retrieve the partially
entered document (automatically saved in the System), fill in the remaining
details, and generate a DIN on a later occasion.
(viii) The last step is
to click on the “Generate DIN” button and a DIN shall be generated for that
particular communication by the System. The generated DIN cannot be edited.
(ix) A new DIN shall be generated each time a request for generating it is
submitted to the System.
(x) After the DIN is generated, the user shall
print the page bearing the DIN and file it in the concerned file while also
quoting the DIN on the communication.
DIN on the communication
8.
The genuineness of the communication can be ascertained by recipient (public) by
entering the CBIC- DIN for that communication in a window VERIFY CBIC-DIN on
CBIC’s website www.cbic.qov.in. Only in those cases where the DIN entered is
valid, information about the office that issued that communication and the date
of generation of its DIN would be displayed on the screen.
9. As
aforementioned, in the first phase beginning on 8th day of November, 2019, the
“Generate DIN” option shall be used for Search Authorizations, Summons,
Inspection
Notices, Arrest Memos, and letters issued in the course of any
enquiry. The format of the DIN shall be CBIC-YYYY MM ZCDR NNNNNN where,
(a) YYYY denotes the calendar year in which the DIN is generated,
(b) MM
denotes the calendar month in which the DIN is generated,
(c) ZCDR
denotes the Zone-Commissionerate-Division-Range Code of the field
formation/Directorate of the authorized user generating the DIN,
(d)
NNNNNN denotes 6 digit alpha-numeric system generated random number.
10.
The electronic generation of DIN and its use in official communications to
taxpayers and other concerned persons is a transformative initiative. Principal
Chief Commissioners/Principal Director Generals / Chief Commissioners/Director
Generals must become fully familiar with the process involved. They are also
urged to ensure that adequate and proper training is provided to all concerned
officers under their charge to ensure its successful implementation. It is
reiterated that any specified document that is issued without the electronically
generated DIN shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed to have never been
issued. Therefore, it is incumbent upon all officers concerned to strictly
adhere to these instructions.
11. Hindi version to follows.
F. No. 394/39(14)/2018-Commr. (Inv.-Cus.)
(M.G THAMIZH VALAVAN)
Commissioner (Inv.-Cus.)
|