With the growing trend towards Digital India, everything has come online, and this has undoubtedly made things easier for us.
Even when we talk about GST Act, it has taken care to promote digital India and has brought all its working online. People can do everything from getting their registrations to maintaining their documents on the GST online portal. But it is very critical that you use this online trend with security. Your documents are important and contain confidential information. So, it is important that you take care to authenticate your documents using the emsigner for GST.
What is Emsigner?
Emsigner is a software, more of a utility that you can use to sign your online documents. It authenticates your documents and keeps them secured from the risks of infringement and information tampering. It works on the concept of using a digital signature. You can store your digital signature on this utility, and every time you need to authenticate an online document, you can use emsigner.
It is mandatory that you put your digital signature on all your GST return filings. Even your registration application needs to have your digital signature on it. So, how can you do that? How will you use this ensigner? Well, that is extremely easy. Here is a little how-to guide for you telling you how to authenticate your GST documents using a digital signature.
How to use emsigner?
If you want to use emsigner, the first requirement is to have the proper system for it. The emsigner works only on the Windows operating system or Java. Even this is for specific versions. You need to have the Windows 32-bit or 64-bit operating system or the versions 1.6, 1.7, or 1.8 of Java for using the emsigner.
The next step after ensuring system compatibility in the emsigner is to download the application. Here is how you can download emsigner.
How to Download Emsigner?
Step 1: Go to the GST online portal and log in to your account.
Step 2: In the right-hand corner, you will find the option “Register/Update DSC.” Click on this option.
Step 3: On your screen, you will see a registration page and find a link right below the field of entering the PAN. Click on this link.
Step 4: You shall be directed to a download page. Select the suitable download option as per the system you have.
Wait for the download to complete.
After completion of the download, you must install it in your system. Follow the below steps for the installation.
Step 1: Find the downloaded file in the system and click on it.
Step 2: The click will open an “Installation Wizard.” In this wizard, at its end, you will find an option showing “Next.” Click on this option.
Step 3: Now, you need to run this application. Just right-click on the icon for the application. From the appearing menu, select the option “Run the Administrator.”
The application will be installed and allow you to complete the registration of your digital signature certificate on the portal.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that you need the requisite permission from the administrator to install this software. SO, make sure that the administrator has given the required permissions before you run the installation. If not, the whole process will fail, and you will have to do it all over again.
After you have installed the emsigner to your user id on the GST portal and updated your digital signature certificate to it, you can easily authenticate your online documents. All you must do is click the option of the digital signature certificate appearing on your dashboard in the portal.
Benefits of Using Digital Signature
There are many benefits of using Digital Signature. Here are some of them.
Document Safety
When a digital signature authenticates a document, you overcome the risks of document infringement or information tampering entirely. Any attempt to tamper with the information in a document containing a digital signature will render the digital signature invalid. This will make the authenticity of document zero, and the document shall absolutely be of no use to the person trying to tamper with the information. So, with the use of a digital signature in your documents, you assure yourself a significant level of document safety. You can stay assured that your confidential information will remain confidential.
Transaction Security
There are many transactions you make. For every such transaction, a document is generated in the form of a receipt. Authenticating such documents with a digital signature will provide you security for your transactions. The digital signature acknowledges the receipt and payment in the transactions, and none of the parties can later deny the receipt of the money. So, with a digital signature, you get an exceptional level of security in your transactions, which is quite necessary to save you from losses.
Tracking of the Documents
When you authenticate a document with a digital signature, you turn it into some kind of a tracker. The digital signature enables a feature that will let you know who opened the document and when. This is another added security and safety for the document. With this tracking, you can always know if your document has fallen into the wrong hands. If that has happened, you can take immediate action to prevent any loss to your business as a result of leakage of the document.
Conclusion
The emsigner for GST is a great tool introduced by the GST act and has eased out the processes for the taxpayers. And this actually is the beauty of GST. When you talk about GST Act, you can find so many things it has brought just to ease out the compliances for the taxpayers. And what more, it is making continuous advancements. The online portal, the website, online payments, registrations, filings, document authentication, are all steps towards a better, Digital India. And GST has made all of this possible. So, kudos to the wonderful Act and let us see what better it has in store ahead of the time.
