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The Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners/Principal Commissioners/ Commissioners of Central Tax / Commissioners of Central Tax (Audit)/ Principal Director General of Goods and Services Tax Investigation/ Director General of Systems

Subject: Proper officer under sections 73 and 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017–reg.

The Board, vide Circular No. 1/1/2017-GST dated 26th June, 2017, assigned proper officers for provisions relating to registration and composition levy under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the "CGST Act") and the rules made thereunder. Further, vide Circular No. 3/3/2017-GST dated 5th July, 2017, the proper officers for provisions other than registration and composition under the CGST Act were assigned. In the latter Circular, the Deputy or Assistant Commissioner of Central Tax was assigned as the proper officer under sub-sections (1), (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (9) and (10) of section 74 while the Superintendent of Central Tax was assigned as the proper officer under sub-sections (1), (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (9) and (10) of section 73 of the CGST Act.

2. It has now been decided by the Board that Superintendents of Central Tax shall also be empowered to issue show cause notices and orders under section 74 of the CGST Act. Accordingly, the following entry is hereby being added to the item at Sl. No. 4 of the Table on page number 3 of Circular No. 3/3/2017-GST dated 5th July, 2017, namely:-

Sl. No.	Designation of the officer	Functions under Section of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 or the rules made thereunder
(1)	(2)	(3)
4.	Superintendent of Central Tax	viii(a). Sub-sections (1), (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (9) and (10) of Section 74

3. Further, in light of sub-section (2) of section 5 of the CGST Act, whereby an officer of central tax may exercise the powers and discharge the duties conferred or imposed under the CGST Act on any other officer of central tax who is subordinate to him, the following entry is hereby removed from the Table on page number 2 of Circular No. 3/3/2017-GST dated 5th July, 2017:-

Sl. No.	Designation of the officer
(1)	(2)	(3)
3.	Deputy or Assistant Commissioner of Central Tax	vi. Sub-sections (1), (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (9) and (10) of Section 74

4. In other words, all officers up to the rank of Additional/Joint Commissioner of Central Tax are assigned as the proper officer for issuance of show cause notices and orders under subsections (1), (2), (3), (5), (6), (7), (9) and (10) of sections 73 and 74 of the CGST Act. Further, they are so assigned under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the "IGST Act") as well, as per section 3 read with section 20 of the said Act.

5. Whereas, for optimal distribution of work relating to the issuance of show cause notices and orders under sections 73 and 74 of the CGST Act and also under the IGST Act, monetary limits for different levels of officers of central tax need to be prescribed. Therefore, in pursuance of clause (91) of section 2 of the CGST Act read with section 20 of the IGST Act, the Board hereby assigns the officers mentioned in Column (2) of the Table below, the functions as the proper officers in relation to issue of show cause notices and orders under sections 73 and 74 of the CGST Act and section 20 of the IGST Act (read with sections 73 and 74 of the CGST Act), up to the monetary limits as mentioned in columns (3), (4) and (5) respectively of the Table below:-

Table

Sl. No.	Officer of Central Tax	Monetary limit of the amount of central tax (including cess) not paid or short paid or erroneously refunded or input tax credit of central tax wrongly availed or utilized for issuance of show cause notices and passing of orders under sections 73 and 74 of CGST Act	Monetary limit of the amount of integrated tax (including cess) not paid or short paid or erroneously refunded or input tax credit of integrated tax wrongly availed or utilized for issuance of show cause notices and passing of orders under sections 73 and 74 of CGST Act made applicable to matters in relation to integrated tax vide section 20 of the IGST Act	Monetary limit of the amount of central tax and integrated tax (including cess) not paid or short paid or erroneously refunded or input tax credit of central tax and integrated tax wrongly availed or utilized for issuance of show cause notices and passing of orders under sections 73 and 74 of CGST Act made applicable to integrated tax vide section 20 of the IGST Act
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
1.	Superintendent of Central Tax	Not exceeding Rupees 10 lakhs	Not exceeding Rupees 20 lakhs	Not exceeding Rupees 20 lakhs
2.	Deputy or Assistant Commissioner of Central Tax	Above Rupees 10 lakhs and not exceeding Rupees 1 crore	Above Rupees 20 lakhs and not exceeding Rupees 2 crores	Above Rupees 20 lakhs and not exceeding Rupees 2 crores
3.	Additional or Joint Commissioner of Central Tax	Above Rupees 1 crore without any limit	Above Rupees 2 crores without any limit	Above Rupees 2 crores without any limit

6. The central tax officers of Audit Commissionerates and Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as "DGGSTI") shall exercise the powers only to issue show cause notices. A show cause notice issued by them shall be adjudicated by the competent central tax officer of the Executive Commissionerate in whose jurisdiction the noticee is registered. In case there are more than one noticees mentioned in the show cause notice having their principal places of business falling in multiple Commissionerates, the show cause notice shall be adjudicated by the competent central tax officer in whose jurisdiction, the principal place of business of the noticee from whom the highest demand of central tax and/or integrated tax (including cess) has been made falls.

7. Notwithstanding anything contained in para 6 above, a show cause notice issued by DGGSTI in which the principal places of business of the noticees fall in multiple Commissionerates and where the central tax and/or integrated tax (including cess) involved is more than Rs. 5 crores shall be adjudicated by an officer of the rank of Additional Director/Additional Commissioner (as assigned by the Board), who shall not be on the strength of DGGSTI and working there at the time of adjudication. Cases of similar nature may also be assigned to such an officer.

8. In case show cause notices have been issued on similar issues to a noticee(s) and made answerable to different levels of adjudicating authorities within a Commissionerate, such show cause notices should be adjudicated by the adjudicating authority competent to decide the case involving the highest amount of central tax and/or integrated tax (including cess).

9. It is requested that suitable trade notices may be issued to publicize the contents of this circular.

10. Difficulty, if any, in implementation of the above instructions may please be brought to the notice of the Board. Hindi version would follow.

[F. No. 349/75/2017-GST]

(Upender Gupta)
Commissioner (GST)

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CGST - Ss 73 & 74 - Govt notifies 'Proper Officers'

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