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eCST: Electronic CST Forms Declaration

Dealer Instruction Sheet

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Introduction to eCST Roll Out

Maharashtra Sales Tax Department had launched an on-line application for CST Forms. As per this process, the Statement of Request (SOR) had to be uploaded on department’s website (www.mahavat.gov.in), whereas CST Forms were printed on pre-printed stationery and issued/served to dealers through couriers. In case of any non-compliance such as return default, outstanding recovery, incorrect/non-disclosure of turnover of interstate purchases etc. department used to communicate the dealer through e-mail. The dealers had to respond by visiting and submitting details to the concerned officer. The turnaround time/service delivery time in this system has been reasonably high.

In order to improve the quality of services to dealers, a comprehensive and end to end automated eCST Module has been developed by the department and is being rolled out shortly. In the new module, uploading of SOR, viewing the defect memo and also compliance to defect memo will happen online (at: www.mahavat.gov.in) only. The CST Forms would be in digital formats and hence, printing of Forms on pre-printed stationery would be discontinued. The automatic messages will be delivered (through email & SMS) about status of SOR (Hold, Approved, Rejected etc.) to the dealers.

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Introduction to eCST Roll Out

Through the eCST module, the Maharashtra Sales Tax Department (MSTD) will issue all Statutory Forms required under the CST act electronically.

The application for CST forms is to be filed by the dealers in the form of a Statement of Requirement (SOR) along with an invoice wise Annexure.

Once the SOR is uploaded successfully, the MSTD will communicate to the dealer about the status of the SOR within 2 business days.

If the SOR is approved, dealers can download the requested eCST forms.

If the SOR is not approved by the MSTD, the dealer can comply with the inadequacies in the SOR or submit clarifications.

The dealers can also cancel any incorrectly issued forms if required.

The entire eCST process can be classified into 3 stages:

1) Uploading the New eCST SOR (Application Form)

2) Downloading the Issued eCST form

3) Responding to Defect Memo

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Uploading the New eCST SOR (Application Form)

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Steps Involved in Uploading New eCST SOR

Step1 • Download the New SOR Template

Step2 • Enter Data in the New SOR Template

Step3 • Validate the New SOR Template

Step4 • Upload the Validated SOR

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Step1: Download the New SOR Template

To download the new SOR template, please visit http://www.mahavat.gov.in/

Select: ‘Downloads’ And Click on ‘Forms’

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Step1: Download the New SOR Template

On the ‘FORMS’ page, click on ‘Electronic Forms’

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Step1: Download the New SOR Template

On the ‘Electronic Forms’ page, click on the New SOR Template highlighted in

the screenshot to download it.

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Step2: Populate the New SOR Template

Open the downloaded New SOR Template XL Sheet from the location on your

computer and click on ‘Enable Editing’ button as highlighted in the screenshot.

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Step2: Populate the New SOR Template

Then click on ‘Enable Content’ button as highlighted in the screenshot. Now the

SOR template is ready to be populated.

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Step2: Populate the New SOR Template

The SOR is an excel workbook containing 5 work sheets.

Populate the ‘SOR’ sheet in the SOR workbook with aggregated information

about the Forms Required.

Populate the invoice level details in the following sheets:

Invoice level information for C & F Forms should be added to ‘C&F

FORMS’ sheet

Invoice level information for H Forms should be added to ‘HFORMS’ sheet

Invoice level information for E1&E2 Forms should be added to

‘E1E2FORMS’ sheet

Kindly Note the following before applying for eCST forms:

For any particular Form Type (C/EI/EII/F/H) maximum of two CST form per

Receiving Dealer will be issued per filing period forms (F-Forms are

monthly all other Forms are Quarterly).

If a third form for a period is required, dealers need to seek special

approval of Additional CST (VAT-2).

The SOR must contain CST form requests of a single financial year.

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Step2: Populate the New SOR Template

Enter data in the ‘SOR’ sheet in the SOR workbook with aggregated

information about the Forms required as shown below:

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Step2: Populate the New SOR Template

Enter the invoice level details in the relevant sheets for the Forms Required as

shown below:

Ver 1.4.0

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Step3: Validate the New SOR Template

Once the aggregated form level information and invoice level details are

entered in the relevant sheets for the eCST forms Required, ‘save’ the file,

validate each sheet by clicking on the “Validate” button and finally scroll to the

bottom of the ‘SOR’ sheet and click on the “Press to Validate” button.

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Step3: Validate the New SOR Template

Once the SOR is validated, errors if any will be listed with an error description

in the ‘Cerrors’ sheet.

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Step3: Validate the New SOR Template

In order to remove all defects, kindly ensure the following:

The “Total Value of Transaction Including Tax” in the “SOR” sheet should

be the sum of all invoice level information.

The “Total Number of Transaction Including Tax” in the “SOR” sheet

should be equal to number of all invoices shown in the respective invoice

level sheet in the SOR.

The “Period of Transaction” on the invoice level sheet should be within the

“Period of Transaction” mentioned on the “SOR” sheet.

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Step3: Validate the New SOR Template

Make the corrections in the SOR and remove all errors. Then validate the SOR

again by clicking the ‘Press to Validate’ button. If the validation is successful, a

message will be displayed as below:

A “-Rem.txt” file will be created in the highlighted location of your computer.

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Step4: Upload the Validated SOR

Now again please revisit http://www.mahavat.gov.in/

Enter the Dealer credentials and Log-in to the system.

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Select: ‘e-CST Declarations’ and Click on ‘Request of CST forms’

Step4: Upload the Validated SOR

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Step4: Upload the Validated SOR

Click on ‘Browse’, select the “Rem.txt” file created for the SOR to be uploaded

and click on ‘Validate & Upload’ button.

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Step4: Upload the Validated SOR

An acknowledgement message like the one shown below will be displayed.

Note the Transaction ID for further communication and download of approved

eCST forms.

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Downloading the Issued eCST form

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Once the SOR is approved, issuing (requesting) and accepting dealers

receive an acknowledgement through email and SMS.

The issuing dealers or the ones who has filed the SOR will be

communicated the Transaction ID as well as the Form Nos. through email

and just the Transaction ID through SMS. They can then download the

issued forms using the unique Transaction ID.

The accepting dealers are communicated only the Form Nos. and the name

of the issuing dealer, they can use the Form Nos. to download their issued

eCST forms.

All email communications will contain clear directions about the method of

downloading the issued eCST forms.

Downloading the eCST forms

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Once the SOR is approved, the issuing (requesting) dealers will receive an

acknowledgement through email and SMS.

Then please visit: http://www.mahavat.gov.in; Login using user credentials,

Select: ‘e-CST Declarations’ and Click on ‘CST Forms View/Download’

Enter the approved SOR’s Transaction ID and click ‘SEARCH’ button.

Then download the issued eCST forms.

Downloading the eCST forms for Issuing Dealer

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All the issued forms requested per the SOR will be displayed as shown in the

below list.

Downloading the eCST forms for Issuing Dealer

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On clicking, the specific CST form, the eCST from in PDF format is shown as

below. The form can be downloaded by saving the PDF document.

Downloading the eCST forms for Issuing Dealer

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Once the SOR is approved, the accepting dealer will also receive an

acknowledgement through email and SMS.

Then please visit: http://www.mahavat.gov.in;

Select: ‘Downloads’ and Click on ‘Retrieve CST-Forms’

Enter the approved eCST form Sr. No. and click ‘SEARCH’ button.

Then download the issued eCST form.

Downloading the eCST forms for Accepting Dealer

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1. Download and install latest version of Acrobat Readers. (Version 10 or higher

is recommended).

2. Open the saved PDF document of eCST-Form in Acrobat Reader

3. This will show the “Validity Unknown” in Digital Signature.

Validating the eCST forms

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Right-click on the Digital Signature and click “Validate Signature”

Click on “Signature Properties”

Validating the eCST forms

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Click on “Show Signer’s Certificate”

Validating the eCST forms

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Click on “Trust” tab

Validating the eCST forms

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Click on “Add Trusted Certificates”

Validating the eCST forms

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Click on “OK” and then click “Validate Signature”

Validating the eCST forms

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Now you can see the PDF of the eCST form digitally signed by the Authorized

Signatory of the MSTD. This exercise is required to be performed only once on

a specific computer. The next time, all Digital CST-Form will be automatically

signed on that computer.

Validating the eCST forms

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Responding to Defect Memo

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Once the SOR is not approved, the issuing dealer will receive an

acknowledgement through email and SMS. The reasons for not approving the

SOR would be present in the email. To see the details or to respond to the

Defect Memo / give clarifications: please visit: http://www.mahavat.gov.in; Login

using user credentials, Select: ‘e-CST Declarations’ and Click on ‘Defect

Memo’

Responding to Defect Memo

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A page showing all the Defect Memos for the dealer will be displayed. Click on

the Defect memo relevant to the SOR No or Transaction ID communicated.

Responding to Defect Memo

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A screen showing the reasons/defects for not accepting the SOR will be shown

as below. Click on the “Memo Details” button to see the details of the defects

raised by the MSTD.

Responding to Defect Memo

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Responding to Defect Memo

The ‘Dealer Verification’ screen showing the details of the issues highlighted on

the ‘Defect Memo’ can be seen.

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Once all defect compliances are done, mention appropriate comments and

select the “I have complied to all the Defect” radio-button and then click submit.

If the defects cannot be complied to, click on “I cannot comply” and submit the

response to ‘Defect Memo’.

* Please Note: Dealers will have to provide relevant details like: period, amount

and date, bank of payment for all actions taken by them like: revision of returns,

short filer payments, etc.

Responding to Defect Memo

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Once a response is submitted an acknowledgement will be generated. Based

on the response submitted, the SOR will again be evaluated by the system and

according to the evaluation, communication will be sent by the MSTD through

e-mail & SMS.

Responding to Defect Memo