GST Notice by Email but Not on Portal: What to Do

A GST notice received by email, with nothing matching it on the portal, is one of the most common queries we see from business owners. You open your inbox, find a PDF demanding tax within seven days, log in to gst.gov.in, and the Notices and Orders tab is empty. Before you pay, or fire off an angry reply, slow down. E-mail is a legally recognised mode of service under GST, so a missing portal entry does not by itself make a notice fake. Equally, a PDF carrying the departmental emblem does not make it genuine. What settles the question is the number printed on the document, and where it actually came from.

How GST authorities usually serve a notice

Section 169(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 lists the modes of service. A notice, order, summons or other communication may be served by handing it over or tendering it, by registered post, speed post or courier, by sending a communication to the e-mail address given at the time of registration or as amended later, by making it available on the common portal, by publication in a newspaper, or by affixing it at the last known place of business or residence. Any one of these is enough. The department is not obliged to use all of them, and it is not obliged to upload a notice on the portal merely because it has sent you an e-mail.

The statute goes further. A communication sent by e-mail is treated as served if it is not returned undelivered. That single line explains why so many disputes begin with the phrase "we never received it". If the e-mail ID on your registration record is the old accountant's address, or a mailbox nobody opens, the notice is still good service and the reply period still runs from the date of that e-mail.

Practical consequence: check the registered e-mail address and mobile number on the portal at least once a quarter, and again whenever your accountant or compliance staff changes. It is a two-minute task that prevents six-figure problems.

Check the DIN before you read the demand

Every communication issued by a GST authority must carry a Document Identification Number generated by the system. This comes from Circular No. 122/41/2019-GST dated 5 November 2019, which also provides that a communication without a DIN is treated as invalid and as never having been issued. A short list of exceptions was carved out in Circular No. 128/47/2019-GST dated 23 December 2019. Outside those exceptions, the absence of a DIN is the single most useful signal you have.

On a genuine notice, the DIN is machine-generated and usually appears both in the body of the covering e-mail and at the top of the attachment. It does not look like "Ref: CGST/CBE/2026/117", which is the sort of reference a person types by hand. Alongside the DIN, expect the issuing officer's name and designation, and either a digital signature on the PDF or a physically signed and scanned copy. In practice, officers also quote the DIN when you telephone the range office, because it is what lets them pull the file on their side.

Signs of a fake GST notice received by email

Most fake communications fail on two or three of these tests at once. Read the e-mail headers, not just the attachment.

• The sender domain is not a government domain. Addresses such as "gst-notices-gov.in", "cbic-gst.in" or "gstportal.co" are designed to look right at a glance. The genuine domains end in gov.in.

• The reply-to address differs from the sender. This is a standard phishing trick.

• Payment is demanded to a UPI ID, a bank account, or through a link outside gst.gov.in. GST is paid into your Electronic Cash Ledger on the portal, never into an account or UPI handle mentioned in an e-mail.

• The deadline is 24 to 72 hours, usually paired with threats of arrest, sealing of premises or bank attachment. Statutory notices give you weeks, not hours.

• No DIN, no officer's name, no designation, or a DIN that changes format between the e-mail body and the PDF.

• Wrong particulars. A misspelt legal name, a GSTIN that is not yours, or an address you never occupied.

• It asks for your portal password, OTP or DSC. No officer needs any of these to issue a notice.

• The attachment is an .html, .zip or .exe file, or the e-mail asks you to "download the notice" from an external link.

One quick cross-check costs nothing: search the GSTIN quoted in the e-mail on the Search Taxpayer facility. If the legal name and address do not match your records, stop there.

When a genuine notice is missing from the portal

This happens more often than business owners expect, and it does not mean the notice is fake. The common explanations:

• It sits in a second tab. The dashboard has "Notices and Orders" and, separately, "Additional Notices and Orders". Many users check only the first.
• It belongs to a different registration. If you hold registrations in more than one state, each is a separate login and each has its own notice tab.
• Upload is delayed. Notices despatched by e-mail or speed post are sometimes uploaded a few days later.
• It is a pre-notice communication. A statement in FORM GST DRC-01A under rule 142(1A) of the CGST Rules, 2017, issued before a show cause notice under section 73 or 74, is easy to miss on the dashboard.

Where the e-mail carries a valid DIN, treat the notice as live even if the portal shows nothing. A scrutiny notice in FORM GST ASMT-10 under section 61 read with rule 99 normally gives 30 days to reply in FORM GST ASMT-11, and the clock does not pause while you hunt for a portal entry. Silence has consequences: if returns are pending, the officer can proceed to a best-judgment assessment under section 62, and in a demand case the order under section 73 or 74 can be passed without your version on record.

The Coimbatore case: a real-looking e-mail, no DIN

Sree Lakshmi Textiles, a knitted fabric trader in Coimbatore with a turnover of about Rs 8.4 crore, received an e-mail on 12 January 2026 from an address reading "gst.scrutiny.cbe@gst-notices-gov.in". The subject line said "URGENT: ASMT-10 | ITC mismatch Rs 4,82,310 | reply by 19.01.2026". The attachment was a two-page PDF, styled like a departmental letter, alleging a difference between GSTR-2A and GSTR-3B for 2020-21 and directing payment through a link ending in ".in" plus a UPI ID. There was no DIN anywhere on the letter, no officer's name in the signature block, and the seven-day deadline did not match the 30 days a scrutiny notice ordinarily allows.

The accounts assistant saved the e-mail as an .eml file with full headers, printed the PDF, and did not click the payment link. On logging in, both notice tabs were empty for the firm's GSTIN, and the Search Taxpayer check showed the GSTIN as active. The firm wrote to its jurisdictional range officer on the official gov.in address, attaching the PDF and asking whether any communication had been issued, and filed a grievance on the portal. The reply confirmed that no such notice existed. Had the same e-mail carried a valid DIN and a matching portal entry under Additional Notices, the correct response would have been a reply in FORM GST ASMT-11 through the portal within the 30-day window, with the purchase register and GSTR-2A reconciliation attached.

Preserving the e-mail and replying safely

Whether the notice turns out to be genuine or not, your evidence has to survive. Work through this before you write a single line of reply.

• Save the original e-mail as an .eml or .msg file with full headers, and print the first page showing the sender and reply-to addresses.

• Search both notice tabs, for every GSTIN you hold, and take a dated screenshot of the empty or populated result.

• Locate the DIN and quote it in every letter, e-mail and portal reply; without it, the officer cannot trace the file.

• Reply through the portal, or to the officer's official gov.in address, and never through a link contained in the suspicious e-mail.

• Never pay tax to a UPI ID or bank account mentioned in an e-mail; payments go only through the Electronic Cash Ledger on gst.gov.in.

• Keep the acknowledgement reference or ARN of every reply, and the speed-post receipt if you also send a physical copy.

• If credentials were entered on a lookalike page, reset the portal password immediately and inform the jurisdictional officer in writing.

Documents to keep, and mistakes to avoid

Keep the e-mail with headers, the PDF as received, dated portal screenshots, your written query to the officer and the officer's response, the reply filed with its ARN, and the DIN register your accounts team should ideally maintain for every communication received. Retain these for the period you preserve your GST records.

The recurring mistakes are predictable. Ignoring a genuine e-mail because the portal looks clean is the costliest. Paying "to be safe" to a link in an e-mail is how funds are lost, and it creates no ledger entry. Replying from a personal Gmail address without quoting the DIN or the notice reference makes the response hard to trace. Assuming a PDF with a logo and a round stamp is genuine, when the DIN is missing, is precisely the assumption fraudsters rely on.

Do this today: log in to the portal, open both notice tabs for each GSTIN you hold, and if the e-mail you received has no matching entry and no DIN, forward it with full headers to your jurisdictional officer and ask, in writing, whether any communication was issued to you. Keep the reply on file.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified professional for your specific facts.