The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has issued Circular No. 252/09/2025-GST dated September 23, 2025, providing a significant clarification on the use of Document Identification Number (DIN) in GST-related communications.
Earlier, CBIC mandated quoting DIN on all official communications to taxpayers and stakeholders to ensure transparency and traceability, as per Circular No. 122/41/2019-GST and 128/47/2019-GST. Further, Circular No. 249/06/2025-GST dated June 9, 2025 clarified that communications issued through the GST common portal with a Reference Number (RFN) did not require a separate DIN.
Text of the Circular is as follows
The CBIC issued Important Circular No. 252/09/2025 - GST dated September 23, 2025 regarding the communication to taxpayers through e-Office - requirement of Document Identification Number (DIN).
Attention is invited to Board's Circular No. 122/41/2019- GST dated 05th November 2019 and 128/47/2019-GST dated 23rd December 2019 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 concerned persons.
Attention is also invited to subsequent Board's Circular No. 249/06/2025-GST dt. 09th June 2025 clarifying that for communications via GST 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.
On similar lines, it has been brought to the notice of the Board that communications issued through e-Office of CBIC bear an automatically generated unique 'Issue number'. However, no online utility was available to verify the authenticity of such communications through Issue number, hence DIN was required to be generated and quoted on such communications. Now an online utility has been developed and made functional (URL https://verifydocument.cbic.gov.in), where the taxpayers and other concerned persons can verify online the electronically generated unique "Issue number" borne on communications dispatched using public option in e-Office application by CBIC officers. Upon verification, this utility confirms the Issue number, and other details and provides information to authenticate the document, like, -
- File number,
- Date of issuing the document,
- Type of communication,
- Name of Office issuing the document,
- Recipient name (masked),
- Recipient address (masked),
vii. Recipient email (masked).
The name of the office issuing the document is captured from the data available within e-Office, while the document type, recipient name, recipient address, recipient email are entered in the metadata by the officers creating the document. Officers responsible for issuing communications via CBIC's e-Office must mandatorily fill and ensure correctness of this information in the metadata while creating the draft before its approval.
In light of the above, quoting separate DIN on such communications dispatched using public option in e-Office application, which already bear issue number, will result into two different electronically generated verifiable unique numbers namely Issue No. & DIN on the same communication, which renders quoting of separate DIN on such communication unnecessary. It is therefore decided that for communications dispatched using public option in CBIC's e-Office application, the verifiable e-Office 'Issue number' shall be deemed to be the Document Identification Number and such communication shall be treated as a valid communication.
The Document Identification Number generated through DIN utility shall continue to be mandatorily quoted on all other communications which have either not been dispatched using public option in CBIC's e-Office application or which do not bear the verifiable Reference Number (RFN) generated on GST common portal.
To the above extent, Circular No. 122/41/2019- GST dated 05th November 2019, Circular No. 128/47/2019-GST dated 23rd December 2019 and Circular No. 249/06/2025-GST dated 09th June 2025 issued by the Board, stands modified.
Official copy of the circular has also been attached
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