CBIC : Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (in short 'CBIC') was previously named as Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC). Its official website is www.cbic.gov.in. All updates on GST Act, Rules, vide Notification, Circular, Orders issued under IGST Act and CGST Act can be found in this website. A taxpayer can freely access all the updates on GST in this website. The Act, Rules, notifications etc. issued under State Act can be found in respective State GST website.

CBIC has GST rate finder in booklet form, search on website facility, rate finder APP is also available. It has NACIN GST Weekly update in PDF format. Till date the NACIN : National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes  and Narcotics has published 96 updates. It has also e-version GST flyers. Till today 51 flyers is being published in CBIC. It has write ups on general topics for consumer awareness. The topic includes 'Clarification about applicability of GST on under construction and ready-to-move-in property', 'GST for Common Man (Households', ' Clarification on Rate of GST for restaurants', etc. It has FAQs : Frequently Asked Questions on topic like Anti profiteering, General FAQs like FAQs on Eway bill provisions in GST etc. FAQs in regional language is also available. Compilation of Tweeter FAQs is also made available. FAQs is available on topics like real estate sector, services, co-operative society, compensation levy. FAQs on sectors like financial services, transport and logistics, government services, gems and jewellery, IT & ITES, handicrafts, mining, drug and pharmaceutical, e-commerce, food processing, MSME, Exports, textiles etc. is also available in PDF format. The PDF formats are downloadable. The downloaded stuffs are to be used for educational purposes only.

CBIC GST Application monthly Newsletter is also available in the website. CBICMITRA Helpdesk contact details is also given in the website. GSTN helpline number and email address is also given. Press release is also made available which contains update on discussion happened in GST Council meeting. The reports like 'First discussion paper on GST (2009), Comments on DoR on First Discussion paper on GST (2010) is also available in the website. Business process note released in the year 2015 is also available in the website. Guidance note to Department Officers on migration to GST etc. is also available. CBIC also has information on GST awareness campaigns held.

CBIC has information on Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax, Tenders/Auctions, News & Media. Information like Act, Rules, Notification, Tariff on Customs, Central Excise etc. is available in the website. It has useful links like Union Budget, Customs duty calculator, ACES application.  The information is available in Hindi as well apart from English. CBIC does not require login to access all the above mentioned information. It is free.

Taxpayer can visit CBIC website to update his knowledge. Any person wishes to update his knowledge on GST can also visit this CBIC. Easy to refer any notification, circular etc. as it is enumerated in a systematic manner. It is arranged serially and year wise. Notification/circular etc. are listed with a brief update alongside so that one can read it before downloading it for detailed reading.

CBIC has issued 565 notifications, 119 circulars, 18 orders, 14 removal of difficulty orders as on 26.07.2019. In total 716 amendments / clarification in the GST Law. In a short span of GST law being introduced these many changes are seen to be taken place. Thus, one can say that it is not an easy job to keep a track on these many amendments and then to interpret it and then offer opinion to the taxpayers. The GST consultants, advisors, speakers etc. are to be really appreciated to keep a regular track on the changes that done in the law. It is seen that in one fine day 15 to 20 notifications are published in the CBIC. The next day the consultant starts receiving calls from the taxpayers to know about the changes being introduced and will that amendment affect their business. The consultants, taxpayers are actually doing Government job by educating the taxpayer about the new changes. The number of changes may be one of the reason as to why the GST annual return for the very first year is being extended time and again.