Rajasthan GST Department Mandates Virtual Hearing In All Tax Matters, Issues Guidelines

Live LawMarch 6, 2025

The Rajasthan GST Department on 20.02.2025 issued guidelines on virtual hearing.

The Guidelines have been issued in pursuance of the para 143 of the Budget Speech 2025-26 and in exercise of power conferred under Section 168 of the RGST Act, 2017.

The circular highlights that in Rajasthan, provisions have also been made for faceless scrutiny as well as carrying out of Business Audit and Enforcement pertaining to the taxpayers not just by the jurisdictional Proper Officers bit also by the officers posted in the Business Audit and Enforcement Wings. In such a scenario, it becomes increasingly difficult for the taxpayers or their authorized representative to appear in person for submission of documents or for personal hearing.

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Therefore, as per para 143 of the Budget Speech 2025-26 related to Ease of Doing Business, the following announcement has been made:

“143. I announce to provide the facility of hearing through video conferencing in all taxation related cases liked GST, VAT, MV Act, Stamps Act etc. Besides, it is proposed to provide the facility of document submission and verification through Facilitation Dess at the district level in related to the action taken from the headquarters level.”

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The Rajasthan GST Department has mandated virtual hearings for all the taxation matters including GST VAT, MV Act, Stamps Act allowing in-person appearance only with prior permission.

Section 168 of the RGST/CGST Act, 2017 relates to the Power to issue instructions or directions. The Commissioner may, if he considers it necessary or expedient so to do for the purpose of uniformity in the implementation of this Act, issue such orders, instructions or directions to the State tax officers as it may deem fit.

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Few highlights of the guidelines are as follows:

During the proceedings in any case pertaining to the said Acts, all hearings shall mandatorily be carried out in virtual mode and no person shall be required to appear in person for personal hearing except with the prior permission of the concerned Additional Commissioner in cases where the taxpayer or his authorized representative has requested in writing for an in-person personal hearing.
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The date and time of hearing along with a link for the virtual hearing shall be informed well in advance to the taxpayer or his authorised representative through the registered email id or mobile number by giving the details of Proper Officer who shall be conducting the virtual hearing and the application or facility through which the virtual hearing and the application or facility through which the virtual hearing shall be carried out. This link shall not be shared with any person without the consent of the said officer.
In case of any authorized representative representing the taxpayer in virtual hearing, he shall be required to submit his vakalatnama or authorization letter along with the copy of his photo-id card and contact details well in advance to the said officer, devoid of which he shall not be allowed to represent the taxpayer.
In case of any technical issue in connecting for the virtual hearing, the taxpayer or his authorized representative may be joined through tele- conferencing through mobile phone for which they shall be required to keep their phone(s) available for incoming calls.
The submissions made by the taxpayer or his authorized representative through the virtual hearing shall be noted in writing and a statement of the same shall be prepared so as to be uploaded in PDF format under the respective 'Proceedings' tab on the Boweb portal.
In addition to the virtual hearing, in case the taxpayer or his authorized representative need to submit any documents during the proceedings of the case, the same shall be submitted digitally through the registered Email if and no physical submission of documents shall be sought for.
The proceedings of virtual hearing as well as the documents submitted in the above manner shall be deemed to be valid documents for the purpose of the RGST/CGST Act, 2017 in terms of Section 145 of the said Acts read with Section 4 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

This shall come into force immediately and shall also apply to all other Acts administered by the Commercial taxes Department