Step-by-step guide to verify CBIC-DIN: In a big relief for millions of taxpayers who are required to pay any of the three indirect taxes – GST, excise duty and customs duty, they will be able to verify the genuineness of any communication or tax notice received by them. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), has started compulsory use of a computer-generated document identification number (CBIC-DIN) in its communication from today. For the first two months, the unique DIN number will be used for communications related to investigation matters such as search and arrest memos and notice for investigation. The department will expand the use of DIN to all communications by December end. The good thing about the transparency boosting measure is that any taxpayer can go directly to the CBIC’s online portal and verify the details using the DIN number given in the notice sent to him. If the communication does not have a valid DIN then it will be deemed to be non-existent in the eyes of law, said the CBIC.
How to verify CBIC-DIN
If a GST payer receives any notice, search or arrest memo or any other letter from the CBIC then he can do the first level of check without going online. A taxpayer can simply count the number of digits in the CBIC-DIN and it will have 20 digits in a specific format. This is the key difference in the two DIN numbers used by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) as CBDT-DIN has only 10 digits whereas CBIC-DIN has 20 digits.
If a GST or any other indirect taxpayer receives any notice, search or arrest memo or any other letter then after the first level of verification by counting the number of digits in the CBIC-DIN number, he can simply visit the department’s website www.cbic.gov.in and click on the link ‘Verify CBIC-DIN’ link given on the home page.
It will take the user to the CBIC’s Directorate of Data Management’s web page: https://www.cbicddm.gov.in/MIS/Home/DINSearch
Here the user can feed the DIN that will be prominently displayed in the body of the document and the online DIN verification utility will confirm the authenticity of the DIN number.
How to interpret 20 digits of a CBIC-DIN
The format of DIN is CBIC-YYYY-MM-ZCDR-NNNNNN. In this 20 digit DIN number, the first 4 digits reflect the name of the department and the next 4 digits denote the calendar year in which the DIN is generated and the next two digits denote the calendar month in which the DIN is generated.
The remaining 10 digits of the CBIC-DIN have two components, the first four digits after the calendar month are represented as ZCDR (Zone-Commissionerate-Division-Range) Code of the field formation/directorate of the authorised user generating the DIN number.
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According to the CBIC’s circular dated November 5, 2019, a copy of which is reviewed by the Financial Express Online, only an authorised user which is registered in the department’s Directorate of Data Management portal can generate a CBIC-DIN.
According to the circular, the remaining 6 digits depicted as NNNNNN in the circular denote an alpha-numeric system generated random number.
