Resolution of Reconciliation Outcomes (discrepancies noted during the reconciliation process):
104. There would be to and fro data transmission between GSTN, e-FPB of Authorized Banks, banks other than authorized Banks, RBI, Accounting Authorities and Tax Authorities. There is a scope of error occurring at each leg of communication. The process for reconciliation of such errors in each leg of communication is discussed in succeeding paras.
First leg of communication of data (CPIN linked to a GSTIN) starts from GSTN to Authorized banks:
105. If the data forwarded by GSTN (CPIN linked to a GSTIN) itself has an error then this error will be reflected in all the later transactions. So significance of accuracy of this data cannot be overemphasized. It would be important for GSTN to maintain a robust system for maintaining data integrity and keeping the data error free by having suitable validations at the time of creation of CPIN. Key elements here are CPIN and GSTIN.
Second leg of communication of data (CIN with embedded CPIN) starts from Authorized banks / RBI to GSTN (T=0):
106. This communication is not meant to be the basis for accounting, but act as an enabler to reduce errors in the overall process and to facilitate fleet-footed monitoring by the Tax Authorities. The IT system of the authorized banks should have the following validations to reduce possibility of discrepancies in this leg:-
a) In any reporting of successful transactions by the banks to GSTN, CPIN field is never a blank;
b) The response sent back to GSTN is always against a CPIN received from GSTN;
c) Sum total of all credits to Tax accounts for a particular CPIN adds up to the challan amount.
d) CIN reported by the authorized banks/RBI should always have a CPIN embedded in it.
107. In spite of the above mentioned validations, if a discrepancy is found in a bank’s response, the discrepancy will get noticed in the real time validation of the response by the GSTN. The response sent by e-FPB of authorized bank (in Mode I & II) / RBI (in Mode III) should be validated with the data sent earlier by GSTN to Authorized bank / RBI. Key elements are CPIN, GSTIN, CIN & Challan amount in case of authorized banks and CPIN, GSTIN, CIN, NEFT/RTGS UTR and Challan amount in case of RBI. This validation between CPIN available with GSTN and CIN received from e-FPB of authorized banks / RBI should be done on real time basis and the discrepancies, if found should be communicated to the concerned banks immediately by GSTN’s IT system so as to enable time to the banks for correction, if possible, before communicating the receipts to RBI on T+1 basis.
108. The validation by GSTN may throw up following discrepancies in the transaction being reported (with CIN added by the bank) by e-FPB of authorized bank / RBI:
a) without CPIN;
b) with incorrect CPIN;
c) with challan amount mismatch.
109. In all these cases, the resolution at e-FPB may require manual intervention. The bank may resend the data to GSTN after correction. If the bank is unable to resolve by T+1 reporting time to RBI, the bank should include the transaction in the luggage file with whatever CPIN data it may have for that transaction. It will be type (c) error in the third leg.
Third leg of communication of data (luggage file) starts from Authorized banks to RBI (T+1):
110. In this leg, the data is being collated and transferred by authorized banks to RBI in daily luggage files for each type of tax of Government of India (CGST, IGST & Additional Tax) and SGST (state wise; for 29 states and 7 UTs) separately [there will be total thirty nine luggage files (3+29+7)]. The key element here is CIN. So the accurate reporting of the same by the authorized bank to RBI has to be underlined. As RBI would prepare e-scrolls based on this data, correctness and cleanliness of this data is crucial. RBI collates daily luggage files ( thirty nine) received from all the authorized banks, includes payments received directly by it in Mode III, adds RBI Transaction Id for all modes, prepares and sends daily e-scroll (one for each major head for Centre and each State) to GSTN and Accounting Authorities. Reconciliation by GSTN and Accounting Authorities (of the Centre and the States) will be initiated after they receive their respective files (Government of India authorities will receive three files while State Authorities will receive a file each). Errors in this leg of communication would be detected at this stage. Various situations that can be envisaged in this leg are as follows:
a) Transaction reported to GSTN by authorized banks but not to RBI (CIN reported to GSTN but not included in luggage file):
111. To prevent/minimize this type of error, the bank’s IT system should have a validation that all credits to the Tax accounts for the date value being the previous day should get reported to RBI in the luggage file. This discrepancy will be detected at the stage when GSTN and Accounting Authorities compare the challan data (CIN ) of the day received from authorized banks with the e-scroll of the corresponding date received from RBI on T+1 basis. If GSTN detects such a discrepancy, it will communicate the same to the relevant Accounting Authority and RBI. On the basis of this information or on the result of their own reconciliation with reference to CINs reported earlier by GSTN, the Accounting Authority will generate a Memorandum of Error (MOE) with a Unique Identification Number (UIN) and communicate the same to the RBI and copy the same to the concerned authorized bank and GSTN. GSTN being only a pass through portal, should not be entrusted the work of MOE and its resolution. Moreover, MOE process requires manual appreciation of facts, accounting expertise and decision making on behalf of each Government, which will be beyond GSTN’s mandate/capacity. The steps involved in the correction mechanism in the aforesaid situation are as follows:
i) GSTN to report the error to the relevant Accounting Authority (and Tax Authority, if GOI or concerned State so wants) and RBI, if the discrepancy is detected by GSTN;
ii) The relevant Accounting Authority to generate a MOE with a UIN and communicate the same to RBI with a copy to concerned authorized bank for resolution (Accounting Authorities of the Centre and States will have to initiate MOE in respect of their respective taxes) (This may be on the basis of discrepancy detected and communicated by GSTN or by the Accounting Authorities themselves);
iii) RBI to ascertain from e-FPB of the concerned authorized bank / RBI and get the discrepancy corrected. E-FPB of the concerned Authorized bank / RBI must rectify this discrepancy within a period of two days from the date of receipt of MOE from the Accounting Authority;
iv) Rectification by the concerned e- FPB / RBI will be by way of identifying the missing transaction, putting it in a separate luggage file containing the UIN of the relevant MOE and then transmitting the same to RBI;
v) RBI will send a separate e-scroll relating to MOE to the concerned Accounting Authority containing the missing transaction;
Points at iv) and v) are design issues, which can be decided by GSTN in consultation with RBI. The reporting by e-FPB and thereafter by RBI can be through separate files as mentioned above, or the normal luggage file from banks and scroll from RBI can contain the now resolved transaction with a MOE resolution flag and UIN as additional field for the relevant record.
vi) Accounting Authority to note the correction of MOE and report the same to GSTN and the concerned Tax authority thereby completing the transaction cycle;
vii) RBI to take steps to penalize the e-FPB of the concerned Authorized bank.
b) Transaction reported by Bank to RBI but not to GSTN (CIN included in luggage file but CIN not reported to GSTN):
112. In case of payment through internet banking (Mode I), this seems to be an unlikely scenario, as all payments will be processed at the Core Banking Solution (CBS) of the concerned e-FPB of authorized bank and therefore the compiled data that it reports to RBI on T+1 basis will be nothing but the compilation of data (CIN) already reported by e-FPB of authorized bank on real time basis to GSTN. This discrepancy may however arise due to communication failure even after the prescribed rounds of pinging.
113. This discrepancy can arise in other modes of payment (Mode II and III), because the payment cycle is not a single workflow, is spread over a longer period of minimum two days and requires participation of various banking officials even though the entire cycle is supposed to be done on the IT system customized for GST payments.
Such a discrepancy will be detected by GSTN when it undertakes a reconciliation of the challan details (CIN) of a day available with it with the e-scroll of the same day received from RBI on T+1 basis. In such cases, the correction mechanism will involve the following steps:
i) If CPIN and associated data reported in the scrolls received from RBI matches with GSTN’s CPIN data, GSTN can forward the entire challan details of that CPIN to the concerned Accounting Authorities with a copy to Tax Authorities. There will not be any need for MOE in such case. The Accounting Authorities will carry out the accounting based on scroll data received from RBI and tally it with the challan data (CIN) now received from GSTN. GSTN would also update the taxpayer’s cash ledger after confirming the payment from the authorized bank / RBI;
ii) If e-FPB of an authorized bank has reported a transaction to RBI in GST luggage file, without it being a GST transaction or without realization of the amount, it should take up such cases for refund outside the MOE process as a more comprehensive verification will be needed before allowing the refund. For minimizing this kind of error, the bank’s IT system should have validations/controls mentioned in para 85 above;
iii) Only if the CPIN and associated data in the scroll does not match with GSTN’s data there will be a need for MOE. That will be type c) error, discussed in the paragraph below. In those cases, the Accounting Authority should create MOE with a UIN and communicate it to RBI with a copy to e-FPB of the concerned authorized bank. (The Accounting Authorities will identify the concerned bank on the basis of bank code contained in the CIN reported against the successful CPIN in the e-scroll received from RBI).
c) Transaction reported to RBI but with incorrect details of CIN (CIN level mismatch):
114. This kind of error can be minimized through suitable validations in the bank’s IT system. If the error still occurs, it will be noted when the scroll data is processed by GSTN / Accounting Authorities. Even if the error gets noticed earlier as mentioned in para 109 above but remains unresolved till the time of reporting to RBI on T+1 basis, the bank should report the transaction to RBI with whatever CIN data it has received from the e-FPB of authorized bank. The bank should not hold back any balance in the tax accounts beyond the reporting time to RBI in respect of transactions of the previous day. When such unresolved transaction is reported to RBI, it should carry a flag indicating type of discrepancy. RBI should credit the amount to the account of the respective government as mentioned in the luggage file. As the scroll from RBI will have an unresolved CPIN discrepancy, the Accounting Authorities may credit the amount to a separate sub-head under the relevant major head and simultaneously take up MOE process. If the discrepancy pertains to the total challan amount, its impact on individual taxes will get known during reconciliation of the scroll data with the challan data, and the Accounting Authorities of the affected government should take up MOE process.
d) Money transferred to wrong government accounts though CIN matches with data in e-scroll received from RBI (major head level):
115. It may so happen that while sending the luggage file to RBI, the e-FPB of the authorized bank / RBI reflects the amount received in a tax head different from the one specified in the challan (major head level) (CPIN).
116. In such a situation, Accounting Authorities will play a crucial role as they are statutorily responsible not only for proper accounting of money but also for its credit into the correct government account. This discrepancy will be ascertained by the Accounting Authorities while carrying out reconciliation between the challan data obtained from GSTN on T+1 basis (detailing major heads) and e-scroll (for each major head separately) received from RBI. Steps involved in the correction mechanism are as follows:
i) The relevant Accounting authority would generate MOE with UIN and communicate the same to RBI. Accounting Authorities of the Centre and States will have to initiate MOE in respect of their respective taxes;
ii) RBI to ascertain from e-FPB of the concerned Authorized bank / RBI (in case of Mode III) and get the discrepancy corrected within a time period of 2 days from the receipt of MOE from the Accounting Authorities;
iii) E- FPB of the concerned Authorized bank / RBI would verify the details in the CIN transmitted to GSTN with the details transmitted to RBI in the daily luggage file. Thereafter correction entry would be transmitted to RBI in a separate luggage file with UIN of MOE;
iv) On the basis of information transmitted by e-FPB of the concerned Authorized bank, RBI would carry out the corrective Debit/Credit entries in the accounts of the concerned governments;
v) Thereafter RBI would send a separate e-scroll relating to MOE to the relevant Accounting authority about the corrective entry carried out resulting in reconciliation and correction;
vi) Relevant Accounting Authority to account for the corrective entry in its records and report correction of MOE to GSTN and relevant Tax authority thereby completing the transaction cycle;
vii) RBI to take steps to penalize e-FPB.
e) CIN neither transmitted to GSTN nor conveyed in luggage file from authorized bank to RBI and therefore not included in e-scroll received from RBI:
117. This scenario will reflect the failure of the system at two ends. In this scenario the taxpayer has properly paid taxes into the government account through authorized / non-authorized banks but the same has neither been reported to GSTN nor to RBI thereby in effect eliminating the transaction from the system itself. So it is crucial that suitable protocol should be developed for dealing with this kind of errors. It has to be kept in mind here that CPIN generated at GSTN has a validity period of only 7 days within which the payment is to be tendered. This error cannot be ascertained on the basis of any reconciliation as there will not be any flow of information from authorized banks / RBI. The error will be noticed only when the taxpayer on not receiving a credit confirmation SMS from GSTN or not finding the credit in his ledger inform GSTN. Steps involved in correction are:
i) In case of OTC payment through authorized banks in cash or by instruments drawn on the same bank, taxpayer will be provided with an instantaneous acknowledgement by the bank containing CIN. As CIN is available with the taxpayer, he should inform GSTN about the transaction (CIN, bank branch where OTC payment was made and date of payment). On the basis of this information, GSTN should ascertain from e-FPB of the concerned authorized bank regarding receipt of payment. Once the confirmation is received through an electronic string, GSTN will validate the same against CPIN and thereafter the tax paid challan (CIN) will be credited to the taxpayer’s ledger. e-FPB of the Authorized bank is now expected to include this receipt in the luggage file for the day for transmission to RBI.
ii) In case of OTC payment through authorized banks by instruments drawn on another bank in the same city, the process of giving acknowledgement would be in two steps. In case CIN is not reported to GSTN by the e-FPB of the authorized bank, the taxpayer may follow the procedure detailed in sub-para i) above. E-FPB of the authorized bank is now expected to include this receipt in the luggage file for the day for transmission to RBI.
iii) In case of OTC payment through banks via NEFT/RTGS, upon successful completion of the transfer at the end of the bank, the taxpayer will get a receipt detailing Unique Transaction Reference (UTR). Taxpayer can thereafter login into GSTN and update the details of UTR provided by the bank for NEFT/RTGS transaction in the challan. GSTN is expected to communicate the UTR to RBI. In case the CIN is not communicated by RBI, GSTN will now take up the matter with RBI (instead of with authorized bank) in the manner detailed in sub para i) above. RBI is now expected to include this receipt in the e-scroll for the day, if NEFT/RTGS remittance was received. If the remittance was not received, RBI will inform GSTN accordingly. In turn, the tax payer will be intimated by GSTN for taking up the matter with his bank (through which NEFT / RTGS was effected by him) for deficiency of service.
f) Sum total of amount for a CIN reported in e-scroll by RBI is lesser / greater than that reported by e-FPB of authorized bank / RBI to GSTN:
118. This error relating to the shortfall can occur if a bank has deducted collection charges in Mode II and a bank has collected remittance charges for NEFT / RTGS transaction from the challan amount Mode III . Such errors in Mode II can be minimized through suitable validations in the bank’s IT system. In such case, one of the tax amounts will be less than the amount indicated in the challan. The relevant Accounting Authority (for whom the amount received is less than the amount mentioned in challan) will have to take up MOE process with RBI with a copy to the concerned bank as detailed in para 116 above for getting the shortfall amount.
119. In case the amount in the scroll is more than the challan amount for any tax, the bank will have to raise the MOE with the concerned Accounting Authority for the refund. Without approval of the Accounting Authority, the banks should not be allowed to adjust the excess amount against future receipts.
Fourth leg of communication of data is between RBI and GSTN & Accounting Authorities:
120. RBI is collating luggage files from e-FPBs of various authorized banks, including amount received by it in Mode III and thereafter generating and transmitting e-scrolls Major head wise to Government of India and SGST (state wise). During collation of the data, an error can creep into e-scroll resulting in missing / additional transaction. Since there is simultaneous flow of information to two different agencies i.e. GSTN and Accounting Authorities, following situations may arise:
a) Transaction reported to GSTN by e-FPB of authorized banks but not by RBI in its e-scroll (CIN level);
b) Transaction reported by RBI in its e-scroll but not by e-FPB of authorized bank / RBI to GSTN (CIN level);
c) Transaction reported by RBI but with incorrect details of CIN (CIN level);
d) Sum total of the amount for CIN reported to RBI is lesser/greater than that received by GSTN/Accounting Authority.
e) There is mismatch between tax wise amounts while the total challan amount matches.
121. In all the situations mentioned above, the reconciliation and error correction mechanism would be similar to that in the third leg of communication (para 110 to 119 above) as the source of discrepancy cannot be identified. It can be at the bank level or at RBI level. Therefore, the concerned Accounting Authorities should take up MOE with RBI with a copy to concerned authorized bank. RBI should first verify the data at its own end for corrective measure, if the error had arisen from its actions, if the source of error is found by RBI to be the one of the authorized bank, it should facilitate/ensure corrective measure by the identified bank in a time bound manner.
