The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has stated that Document Identification Number (DIN) on any communication issued by the officers to tax payers and other concerned persons is not required on Goods and Service Tax (GST) portal communications already bearing Reference No. (RFN).
The documents and summary generated through the common portal of GST always bear a Reference No. (RFN), which is verifiable through the portal. On verification, the portal provides details of the document such as Date of RFN generation, Date of issuing the Document, Module, Type of Communication and Name of the Office issuing the Document.
Section 169(1)(d) of the CGST Act, 2017, provides that any decision, order, summons, notice or other communication shall be served by making it available on the common portal.
CBIC issued the Circular No. 122/41/2019- GST dated 05 th November 2019 and 128/47/2019-GST dated 23.12.2019, which were issued for implementation of decision regarding Generation and Quoting of Document Identification Number (DIN), initially on specified documents and subsequently expanded to all communications (including e-mails) sent to taxpayers and other concerned persons by any office of CBIC. This was done with a view to leverage technology for greater accountability and transparency in communications with the trade/ taxpayers/ other concerned persons.
Further vide Instruction No. 4/2023-GST dated 23.11.2023, CBIC emphasised on strict compliance of rule 142 of CGST Rules and directed to ensure that summary of Show Cause Notices in Form GST DRC-01 and summary of the Order-in-Original in Form GST DRC-07 should be served electronically on common portal / uploaded electronically on the common portal.
The Board stated that quoting DIN on such communications generated through the common portal of GST, which already bear RFN, results into two different electronically generated verifiable unique numbers namely RFN & DIN on the same communication, which renders quoting of DIN on such communication unnecessary.
The Board clarified that for communications via common portal (in compliance with Section 169 of the CGST Act, 2017) having verifiable Reference Number (RFN), quoting of Document Identification Number (DIN) is not required and such communication bearing RFN is to be treated as a valid communication.
Circular Details
Circular No. 249/06/2025-GST
Date: 09/06/2025
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