GST Portal Updates & Fixes: January 2019

Several new features have been introduced on the GST portal to improve functionality and user experience.

Registration Updates

• Normal, OIDAR, and NRTP taxpayers are no longer required to provide bank details when submitting their initial registration application.
• These taxpayers can update their bank information later through a non-core amendment to their registration application. The system for non-core amendments for GST Practitioners (GSTPs) has been updated to reflect these changes.
• Additionally, GST Practitioners now have a dedicated facility on the GST Portal to file non-core amendments to their own registrations.

Composition Scheme Enhancements

A new option allows composition scheme taxpayers to respond to Show Cause Notices (SCNs) for mandatory withdrawal from the scheme. If a tax official initiates proceedings for compulsory withdrawal, the taxpayer can now submit their reply directly on the GST Portal.

Payment System Improvements

The e-Payment facility on the GST Portal now offers a preferred list of banks:

• Taxpayers will see up to six preferred banks when making e-payments.
• The first bank selected by a taxpayer for payment will automatically be added to their preferred banks list.
• Subsequent payments made using different banks will also update this list.
• If a taxpayer already has six preferred banks and uses a seventh, the new bank will be added, and the least frequently used bank will be removed.
• Taxpayers can also remove any bank from their preferred list at any time.

Technical Issue Resolutions

Several technical glitches have been addressed:

• Registration for Taxpayers:
  • The error message displayed when taxpayers attempted to retrieve their username using the “forgot username” feature (especially after an authorized signatory change by tax officials) has been corrected.
  • First-time login error messages have been improved; instead of “invalid username or password,” the portal will now show “enter valid username.”
• Registration for Tax Officials:
  • An error preventing Tax Officials in Model I States from retrieving taxpayer ledger data (from registration date to approval date) has been resolved.
  • An issue that stopped Tax Officials in Model I States from changing authorized signatories for canceled taxpayers has been fixed, allowing them to perform this update.
  • Errors encountered by Tax Officials in Model I States when using the “get Taxpayer Details” functionality have been rectified.
  • Problems with suo moto applications and revocation applications not appearing on the tax official dashboard due to pending task count mismatches have been resolved.