Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Excerpts from CGST Guidelines on Invoices

Signing invoices is a matter of interest for a large number of users of Digital Signatures. It is therefore interesting to take a look at what CGST guidelines say about the use of Digital Signatures for signing invoices, and the Type of Signatures that can be used.

The Central GST Rules are available on the GST Council website. The latest guidelines as of today are available here:

http://gstcouncil.gov.in/sites/default/files/NOTIFICATION%20PDF/CGST-Rules-06072018.pdf

[Link moved. New link as of 10/07/2019:
https://cbic-gst.gov.in/pdf/23042019-CGST-Rules-2017-Part-A-Rules.pdf
]

Chapter VI deals with TAX INVOICE, CREDIT AND DEBIT NOTES.

Section 46 begins:





and continues...




specifically (Color added to draw attention to specific words):

"digital signature of the supplier or his authorised representative."


The definition of supplier is found in the CGST Act 2017, as it appears in the Gazette of India, which is available from the GST Council website link below.

http://gstcouncil.gov.in/sites/default/files/CGST.pdf



The definition of supplier in section 2(105) is below:




The definition of person in Section 2 (84) of the CGST Act is below:





Lastly, we could not find any specific mention of whether Class 2 or Class 3 signatures have to be used for signing invoices. However, we know that for various tax filings, corporate filings, EPF and other Government filings, Class 2 signatures are used.

Certifying Authorities issue Class 3 Corporate Document Signing Certificates on an HSM only. However, for Class 2 Corporate Document Signing Certificates, HSM is not required, although security precautions are to be taken in their usage.



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