Biometric authentication will be leveraged to meet demand in tax claim services to keep out fraudulent and unscrupulous entities.
To crack down on around 12,500 fake cases, biometrics and geo-tagging is being introduced by India’s Goods and Services Tax Authorities to identify misuse of the Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Aadhaar national identity systems.
A three month investigation will be driven by States to tighten restrictions on invalid registrations and exploitation of tax credit services.
India’s tax authorities have moved on from leveraging OTP-based authentication to biometric authentication which will require suspicious entities to present themselves in-person at an Aadhaar biometrics facility. With particular regions affected by an influx of false registrations, geo-tagging will provide a reference to the premises where an organisation is operating so authorities can conduct an audit.
Vivek Johri, Chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs: “We have started a pilot geotagging in 1-2 States where we are trying to geo tag the address so that exact location of that address is available to us. In past, we found that an office place is created only for verification & subsequently when you go there you find there is no longer office and it is all a play act”.
After the pilots, the initiative is expected to be rolled out across India making geotagging mandatory for all entities while biometric authentication will be imposed for existing and new registrations if suspicious cases are brought to attention.
