Necessity of assuming control over person :

To constitute an arrest it is necessary that the officers should assume custody and control over the person, either by force or with his consent, and it has been held that neither the utterance of words indicating an intention to arrest on the part of the person uttering them, nor the reading of the warrant is of itself sufficient.

The Commissioner of CGST/SGST can authorise a CGST/SGST officer to arrest a person if he has reasons to believe that the person has committed an offence attracting a punishment prescribed under section 73 (1)(i), 73 (1)(ii) and 73 (2) of the CGST/SGST Act. This essentially means that a person can be arrested only where the tax evasion is  more than fifty lakhs rupees or where a person has earlier been convicted for an offence under section 73 of the Model CGST/SGST Act.

There are certain safeguards provided under section 62 for a person who is placed under arrest. These are:

i. If a person is arrested for a cognizable offence, he must be informed in writing of the grounds of arrest and he must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest;

ii. If a person is arrested for a non-cognizable and bailable offence, the Deputy/ Assistant Commissioner of CGST/SGST can release him on bail and he will be subject to the same provisions as an officer incharge of a police station under section 436 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973;

iii. All arrest must be in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 relating to arrest.