The CBIC has issued the Notification No. 60/2018- Central Tax, dated October 30, 2018 on provisions of GST practitioner exam by inserting new Rule 83A of Central Goods and Service Tax Rules 2017.
It says that every person as referred to in clause (b) of Rule 83(1), who have enrolled as a goods and services tax practitioner under sub-rule (2) shall pass GST practitioner exam. This exam will be conducted by NACIN twice in a year as per the schedule published on official website of NACIN.
A person who is eligible and require to pass the GST practitioner exam must register himself on the online website as specified by NACIN. While registration, he must pay the GST practitioner exam fee as specified on the website. All this information will also get published on official website of the Board and common portal. The applicant can choose an examination center located across the nation as designated by NACIN.
A person who has enrolled himself as a goods and service tax practitioner under sub-rule (2) of rule 83, is required to pass the GST practitioner exam within the period of 2 years starting from his enrollment as GST practitioner.
However, if the GST practitioner has enrolled himself before the date of July 01, 2018, then he will get an extra 1 year to pass the examination. There is no limit on the number of attempts by a GST practitioner to take the examination in the period as specified above. He shall register and pay the fee at each of his attempt.
Also, there is a provision of providing an extra attempt to GST practitioners who are unable to appear in one or more of GST practitioner exam attempts for which they have done the GST practitioner exam registration and are unable to attempt due to unforeseen circumstances like critical illness or accident or any natural calamity. For this, he is required to submit a written application to jurisdictional commissioner to grant him additional attempt to pass the GST practitioner exam within 30 days of conduct of the exam. Then NACIN shall consider such a request as per recommendations of jurisdictional commissioner.
The GST practitioner exam will be a computer based test which will have multiple choice questions. A person shall have to secure minimum 50% marks to qualify this GST practitioner exam. NACIN will publish a detailed guidelines on its website explaining the registration procedure, payment of fee, nature of identity documents to be submitted and carried during the GST practitioner exam, how admit card shall be floated and how one must report at the examination center and how one needs to answer the question paper.
The syllabus shall cover the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, The Integrated Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, All the State Goods and Services Tax Acts, 2017, The Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, The Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, The Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, The Integrated Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017, all the State Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017 and all the notifications, circulars, orders that are issued in related to above mentioned acts from time to time.
After about one month of the conduct of GST practitioner exam, the results will be published on NACIN website. The results shall also be available on website of the Board, GST Council Secretariat, common portal and State Tax Department of States and Union Territories.
There is also a provision of a person to submit a written application to NACIN or jurisdictional commissioner if he is not satisfied with his results. This need to be done as per procedure published on NACIN website for handling representations. The Board or State Tax Commissioner has the power to relax any provision of this rule for a person of any class or category as or when required. It says that every person, as referred to in clause (b) of Rule 83(1), who has enrolled as a goods and services tax practitioner under sub-rule (2) shall pass GST practitioner exam.
This exam will be conducted by NACIN (National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes, and Narcotics), twice in a year as per the schedule published on official website of NACIN. This schedule will also be published on common portal, GST Council Secretariat and all leading English and regional newspapers.