About the GST certificates

The GST family covers the twelve certificates in the ICAI GST & Indirect Taxes Committee's Guide to CA Certificates in GST (3rd edition, December 2024). The ICAI Handbook on Certificates refers you to that Guide for GST certificates.

Built on the Guide, in our own words

Each certificate keeps everything its chapter of the Guide requires:

• the parties
• the statutory basis
• the threshold
• the calculations
• the level of assurance
• the limits of what is certified
• the restriction on use

The sentences are OptiCertificate's own, not copied from the Guide. The catalogue marks these certificates Based on ICAI GST Guide, not "ICAI format", in the Handbook note beside each. Standards are still cited by their exact titles: the Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016), and SQC 1.

Where the Guide's own text slips — a date copied from the wrong chapter, or a formula label that disagrees with its worked figure — the certificate prints what the law and the Guide's arithmetic say. It does not reproduce the slip.

The twelve

ITC on RegistrationChapter 1 · s. 18(1)(a)

Credit on stock held the day before liability to pay tax arose, for Form GST ITC-01. Inputs only.

ITC on Voluntary RegistrationChapter 2 · s. 18(1)(b)

The same, for registration taken voluntarily under section 25(3), with the valuation method stated.

ITC on Leaving CompositionChapter 3 · s. 18(1)(c)

Stock and capital goods when you stop paying tax under section 10. Capital goods credit is reduced per quarter.

ITC When Exempt Supplies Become TaxableChapter 4 · s. 18(1)(d)

Stock and capital goods relating to exempt supplies that have become taxable.

ITC Transfer on Change in ConstitutionChapter 5 · s. 18(3)

That a sale, merger, demerger, amalgamation, lease or transfer provided for the transfer of liabilities, for Form GST ITC-02.

ITC Reversal on Opting for CompositionChapter 6 · s. 18(4)

Credit to pay back, in Form GST ITC-03, on stock whose invoices are not available.

ITC Reversal When Supplies Become ExemptChapter 7 · s. 18(4)

The same, when taxable supplies become wholly exempt.

ITC Reversal on CancellationChapter 8 · s. 29(5)

The same, in Form GSTR-10, when registration is cancelled.

GST RefundChapter 9 · s. 54

That the incidence of tax on a refund was not passed on. See GST Refund.

GST Refund on Post-Export Price RevisionChapter 10 · s. 54

That additional foreign exchange came from an upward price revision after export, for Statement 9A of Form GST RFD-01.

GST Credit Mismatch (GSTR-3B vs 2A)Chapter 11 · Circulars 183 and 193

That a supplier paid the tax on invoices its recipient could not match.

GST Credit Reversal on DiscountsChapter 12 · Circular 212

That a recipient reversed the credit on post-supply discounts given through credit notes.

Input tax credit on stock covers Chapters 1–4 and 6–8. Transfer, price revision and the circulars covers Chapters 5, 10, 11 and 12.

Starting from a saved client

Every one of the twelve opens with Select Existing Client. Picking a saved business client fills in its name, GSTIN and principal place of business, and, where the certificate prints it, the State the GSTIN's first two digits name. Picking another client replaces them all; anything the client record does not hold, such as the additional places of business, stays for you to enter.

Thresholds

The law requires a CA certificate only above certain amounts, and each certificate states that the amount has been crossed. If it has not, OptiVida will not issue the certificate:

• Chapters 1–4: the aggregate claim of central, State, Union territory and integrated tax must exceed two lakh rupees. Cess does not count.
• Chapter 9: the refund must exceed two lakh rupees.
• Chapter 11: the difference between GSTR-3B and GSTR-2A must exceed five lakh rupees.
• Chapter 12: the tax in the discounts must exceed five lakh rupees.

The other certificates have no threshold.

UDIN category

The two refund certificates (Chapters 9 and 10) pre-fill 21. Certification for claim of refund under GST. The UDIN list has no category for the other ten. Choose the one you use on the portal — 36. Others if nothing fits.