Instead, their permanent account number (PAN) will be verified through a separate one time password to be sent to the mobile number and e-mail address linked to it. PAN is issued by the Income Tax department.

The amended GST registration form will auto-populate the contact details of the applicant from the Income Tax database as linked with the PAN of the applicant, CBIC said.

This helps to ensure that one uses the same PAN under direct and indirect taxes. Increasingly, both CBIC and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) have been exchanging data and information to better profile taxpayers and capture economic activities sotax compliance improves.

CBIC also said in a social media post that the verification process for completion of GST registration application via biometric-based Aadhar authentication and photograph is only applicable to Gujarat.

Central and state governments are taking steps to make their IT and reporting systems fool-proof in order to widen the tax base. That is crucial to protect the buoyancy in tax collection when economic growth rate normalises further after a bounce back from the pandemic.

Last month, federal indirect tax body, the GST Council took several measures to make GST laws more business-friendly. As per this, the minimum threshold of tax amount for launching prosecution under GST has been raised from Rs. one crore to ₹two crore, except for the offence of issuing invoices without supply of goods or services.

The Council had also decided to reduce the compounding amount from the present range of 50% to 150% of tax amount to the range of 25% to 100%.