Jammu: J&K Finance Department Saturday ordered that before allotting any contract or releasing payment to the contractor, the status of his (contractor’s) GSTIN and authenticity of GST-3B return submitted by him should be verified through the Peridot App (available in the Playstore) or from the State Taxes Department.
GSTIN is a unique 15-digit Goods and Services Tax Identification Number which the business entities obtain after registering under GST.
Circular instructions in this connection were issued to all the Administrative Departments to direct their subordinate officers to follow these guidelines.
“Further, the DD0s should check the latest status of the contractor using the information available on Peridot App or from the State Taxes Department. The payments in favour of those contractors, who are not fulfilling Statutory Obligations under GST Taxation Law should be avoided,” it was further ordered.
Instructions were issued after the Finance Department noted that dealers or contractors whose GSTIN had been cancelled or deactivated were applying for government tenders with submission of fake or forged GST returns.
“Such practice happens because tender inviting departments do not cross-verify documents submitted by the tenderer with the State Taxes Department,” it was observed by the department with concern.
In terms of General Sales Tax Act, 1962, it was mandatory for the contractors to get NOC from the State Taxes Department before applying for a tender.
“This practice has been done away with, post implementation of GST Act, 2017. In order to have timely compliance of returns by contractors as well as DDOs, the State Taxes Department with the help of NIC Jammu has recently developed an Online Web application namely “APNA TDS” portal which helps in identifying payment made to work contract service providers by DDOs through JK Paysys portal,” the instructions mentioned.
It was instructed that before allotting any work contract, the status of GSTIN of the contractor and authenticity of GST-3B return submitted by the contractor could also be verified through the Peridot App (available in the Playstore) or from the State Taxes Department.
“Also before releasing payment to the contractor, the DDOs can verify the latest status of the GSTIN of the contractor by using the information available in Peridot App or through the State Taxes Department in order to ascertain that contractor has not defaulted in GST tax compliance,” the department ordered.