admin
In the recent past it was observed that financial documents/ certificates are being attested by third person misrepresenting themselves as CA Members thereby misleading the Authorities and Stakeholders. In this context ICAI was receiving complaints regarding forging of signatures of CAs by such miscreants.
In order to avoid such malpractices, the ICAI has come out with a technique by digitising the certificates by Practising Chartered Accountants through UDIN i.e. Unique Document Identification Number which is planned to be implemented in phased manner starting from 01.02.2019. It will secure the certificates attested/certified by practicing Chartered Accountants. Apart from this it will also enable the Third parties link government and banks to check if the certificate is issued by the Practising chartered accountants.
Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) is 18-Digits system generated number to be used by every Practicing Chartered Accountants for every document certified/attested by them.
The various phases of applicability of UDIN with effect from 01st February, 2019 is as under:-
From 01st February, 2019:- from 01st February, 2019 UDIN is applicable for all certificates in which financial Information/related contents is certified as True and Fair / True and Correct viz
| (i) | Certificates issued on the basis of Financial books of accounts and annual financial statements-Capital Contribution Certificate/net worth certificate |
| (ii) | Certificates issued on the basis of Financial books of accounts and annual financial statements – Turnover Certificate |
| (iii) | Certificates issued on the basis of Financial books of accounts and annual financial statements -Working Capital Certificate/Net Working Capital Certificate |
| (iv) | Certificates issued on the basis of Statutory records being maintained under Indian Companies Act, 2013 and applicable provisions |
| (v) | Certification of Fair Values of Shares of Company for the scope of merger / de-merger, Buy Back, Allotment of further shares and transfer of shares from resident to non-resident. |
| (vi) | Certificates for Foreign Remittance outside India in form 15CB. |
| (vii) | Net worth Certificates for Bank finances |
| (viii) | Net worth Certificates for Bank Guarantee |
| (ix) | Net worth Certificates for Student Study Loan |
| (x) | Net worth Certificates for Issuance of Visa by Foreign Embassy |
| (xi) | Certificate in respect of Liquid Asset under Section 45-IB of RBI Act, 1945 |
| (xii) | Certification of arms length price u/s 92 of the income Tax Act, 1961. |
| (xiii) | Certificates for funds/ Grants utilisation for NGO’s |
| (xiv) | Certificates for funds/ Grants utilisation for Statutory Authority |
| (xv) | Certificates for funds/ Grants utilisation Under FERA/FEMA/other Laws |
| (xvi) | Certificates for funds/ Grants utilisation Charitable trust/institution |
| (xvii) | Certification under the Income-Tax laws for various Deductions, etc. |
| (xviii) | Certification for claim of refund under GST Act and other Indirect Taxes. |
| (xix) | Certification under Exchange Control legislation for imports, remittances, ECB,DGFT,EOU, etc |
| (xx) | Certificates in relation to initial Public Issue/compliances under ICDR and LODR. |
| (xxi) | Certificate issued by Statutory Auditors of Banks |
| (xxii) | Certificate issued by Statutory Auditors of Insurance Companies |
| (xxiii) | Additional Certification by Concurrent Auditors of Banks not forming part of the concurrent audit assignment |
| (xxiv) | Certificate of Short Sale of securities issued by Concurrent Auditors of Treasury Department of Banks |
| (xxv) | Certificate of physical verification of securities issued by Concurrent Auditors of Treasury Department of Banks |
| (xxiv) | Certificate issued for KYC purpose to banks confirming sole proprietorship |
| (xxv) | Certificate Regarding Sources of Income |
| (xxvi) | Certificates for Claiming Deductions and Exemptions under various Rules and Regulations |
| (xxvii) | Certificates issued under LLP Act |
| (xxviii) | RBI Statutory Auditor Certificate for NBFCs |
| (xxix) | Certificate issued under RERA |
| (xxx) | Others |
From 01st April 2019:- from 01st April, 2019 UDIN is applicable for Audit Report under Goods and Services Tax and Tax Audit Reports.
From 01st July, 2019:- from 01st July, 2019 UDIN is applicable for all other attestation work.
NOW THE ICAI HAS ISSUED FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION FOR MEMBERS AND OTHER STATKEHOLDERS AND FEW OF IMPORTANT FAQ ARE DISCUSSED AS UNDER:-
What is the reference of 18-Digits of UDIN?
The 18- digits UDIN (YY MMMMMM AANNNAANNN) will be like;
19304576AKTSBN1359
Wherein;
First 2 Digits are YY – Last 2 digits of the Current Year (19 in this case)
Next 6 Digits are MMMMMM – ICAI’s Membership No. (304576 in this case)
Next 10 Digits are AANNNAANNN –Alpha-numeric generated randomly by the system (AKTSBN1359).
Is there any fee for generation of UDIN?
There is no fee for registration and generation of UDIN.
How is UDIN secure and confidential?
UDIN is totally secure as it can be viewed only by the Member and/ or the Regulators / other Stakeholders who are having the UDIN. Secondly, it does not contain any information of the client.
When to generate UDIN either at the time of signing certificate or after issuing certificate?
UDIN is to be generated at the time of signing the Certificate. However, the same can be generated within 15 days of the signing of the same (i.e within 15 days from the date mentioned at Certificates and not beyond that)
For generating UDIN, is any document is required to be uploaded on UDIN Portal?
No document is required to be uploaded for generating UDIN.
Who can register on UDIN Portal and Generate UDIN?
All Practicing CAs having full-time Certificate of Practice (CoP) can only register on the UDIN portal to generate UDIN. Further, only the person (Practicing CA) who is signing the certificate can generate UDIN as it contain their membership number.
Whether UDIN will be applicable only for manually signed documents or also for digitally signed certificates being uploaded online such as Form 15 CB?
UDIN will be applicable both for manually as well as digitally signed Certificates / uploaded online. In case of digitally signed / online certificates, UDIN has to be generated and retained for providing the same on being asked by any third party/ authority.
Is UDIN to be generated for the assignments awarded before 1st February, 2019 as UDIN for certificates being made mandatory wef 1st February, 2019?
UDIN is to be generated for all Certificates that are signed on or after 1st Feb., 2019.
How to Register on UDIN Portal?
To register on UDIN, please follow the below steps:
Step 1: Click “Member Registration” or click at “For first time sign up, click here”
Step 2: Registration window will be opened. After entering Six-digits Membership No., Date of Birth and Year of Enrolment please click “Send OTP”. An OTP will be sent to the registered Mobile and Email of the Member.
Step 3: On confirmation of OTP as received, a Username and Password will be sent to the registered Email and Mobile No.
How to generate a Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN)?
Step 1: Go to udin.icai.org, login by entering Username and Password.
Step 2: Click “Generate UDIN” from the menu bar.
Please Select Document type from the drop down menu.
Enter Date of Signing Document i.e. the date of signing/ certifying the document.
Then Enter 2 Financial Figures i.e. any Financial Figures from the document such as Turnover/Net Worth etc.
Then Enter the Description of the Figure i.e. Turnover/ Net Worth etc. to be filled in 10 to 50 characters.
Two Financial Figures are mandatory out of 3 (three) given fields. In case, there is no Financial Figure in the Certificate, Zero (0) is to be mentioned in Financial Figure and in its Particulars mention “There is no Financial Figure in Certificate”.
Then please Select Document Description and enter the description/ details about the Certificate in 15 to 50 characters.
Then Click the button “Send OTP”.
After this an OTP will be received on Registered Mobile and Email of the Member.
Then Enter OTP as received and click “Preview”. In Preview details entered for generating the UDIN will be displayed. If there is any change/error in the content, click “Back” button, or else, click “Submit”.
Thereafter, 18 Digit UDIN will be generated and that UDIN can be used for mentioning on the Certificate for which it has been generated either by printing (watermarked) the same or by handwritten or printed. If it is being handwritten or printed, it can be mentioned after Signatures and Membership Number of the Member.
11 What is required to generate UDIN?
For generating UDIN, the Document type is to be selected. Thereafter, date of signing the document is to be mentioned. There are 3 fields for entering the financial figures / values from the document and the description of the figure/ value so entered. Out of these, 2 fields are mandatory. In case, there is no financial figure / value available in the document, 0 (zero) is to be mentioned and in description it should be clarified that no financial figure / value is available.
No details of the Client is to be mentioned anywhere on UDIN Portal.
What are the Financial Figures and Particulars required to be mentioned for generating UDIN?
Any Financial Figure and its particular from the document such as Turnover, Net worth etc. for which UDIN is being generated is to be mentioned under Financial Figures and Particulars. The particular is to be filled between 10 to 50 characters.
Two Financial Figures are mandatory out of three fields. In case, there is no financial figure in the certificate being certified, 0 is to be mentioned in Financial Figure and in its particular please mention “There is no Financial Figure in Certificate”.
How UDIN can be edited?
UDIN once generated cannot be edited. A preview option is available after entering all details for generating UDIN for verifying its correctness before Generation.
What if the wrong UDIN is generated or if a UDIN needs to be revoked? If yes, is there any time limit for revocation the certificates?
In such case(s), UDIN can be revoked by mentioning the reason. Further, there is no time limit for allowing revocation.
How UDIN generated earlier by me can be tracked? Can it be sorted assignment-wise for our records?
Yes, UDIN generated by the members can be tracked through “Search” from your UDIN account
How to Revoke UDIN?
The UDIN once generated can be revoked or cancelled with narration. If any user had searched that UDIN before revocation, an alert message will go to him about revocation of the UDIN. After revocation of the UDIN, anybody searches for that UDIN, appropriate narration indicated by Member with the date of revocation will be displayed for that revoked UDIN.
How to Change/update /verify the mobile no. or email id in ICAI database.
To change / update the email and mobile number, pl visit https://sdb.icai.org/member/updemX.aspx
Sometimes there are multiple reports in one Assignment. Is separate UDIN is to be generated for all such reports?
No. UDIN is to be generated for Assignment wise and same UDIN is to be used in all documents signed under that assignment. Say for Example while signing the various certificates while doing Bank Audit, same UDIN can be used for all certificates to be signed for that particular Bank Audit Assignment.
How many UDINs can be generated by a CA? Is there any limit? Or is there any restriction on the number of UDIN to be generated in a Day/ Month/ Year?
There is no limit on generation of UDIN and there is no restriction on the number of UDIN to be generated.
Is UDIN required to be mentioned on every page of the Document or it can be mentioned at the last?
UDIN shall be mentioned after every Signature and Membership Number of the Member.
Whether one UDIN can be used for multiple certificates generated on same day?
No, separate UDIN is required for each assignment and is to be used for all documents issued under that assignment.
Can multiple certificate details be uploaded on UDIN portal in excel or any other format?
There is no provision of such uploading. It has to be generated one by one.
Should existing digital signature be revised or changed due to UDIN insertion?
UDIN has no connection with Member’s Digital Signature and therefore no changes are required in Digital Signature.
Is it possible to generate UDIN before issuing the certificate?
There is no option to generate UDIN in advance. However, there is option given to generate UDIN within 15 days of signing of the certificate.
What is the validity of UDIN generated?
Generated UDIN has no expiry unless revoked.
What is the consequence of not generating UDIN which are made mandatory by ICAI in respective phases?
UDIN generation has been made mandatory as per the Council Decision hence not generating UDIN for mandatory documents will amount to non-adherence of the Council Decision and may attract disciplinary proceedings as per the Second Schedule Part II of The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.
How do Authorities/Regulators/Banks/Others can search UDIN?
The UDIN so indicated on certificate can be searched through the search option on UDIN Portal by sharing few details such as Name of the Authority, Mobile Number and Email of the person searching the UDIN. However, they are not required to register themselves on the UDIN Portal.
For searching UDIN, whether a regulator/third party requires to register on UDIN portal.
No Registration is required for regulator/third party to search the certificate. For searching the UDIN regulator/third party has to mention UDIN number, Mobile number, email ID and Name of the authorities searching UDIN.
Which types of regulators/third parties can ask for UDIN
ICAI has made awareness about mandatory applicability of UDIN to all regulators like RBI, SEBI, CBDT, MCA, IBA and they can very well ask for UDIN.
Where do anyone contact in case of any query related to UDIN?
Members can submit their query online on the help desk tab on Menu bar available at https://udin.icai.org or can email at udin@icai.in. Members of ICAI can alternatively call at 011-30110480. In case of emergency, please speak with Mr. Vishal Agarwal at 9911539260
