Amendment in Rule 5A(2) of Service Tax Rules, 1994 (Power of making demand of financial records from assessee)

CBEC has amend­ed Rule 5A(2) of Ser­vice Tax Rules, 1994 to empow­er the Char­tered Accoun­tants and Cost Accoun­tant for con­duct­ing ser­vice tax audits.

For grant­i­ng such empow­er­ment and for mak­ing some oth­er changes in the Ser­vice Tax Rules, 1994, in rule  5A, for sub-rule (2), the fol­low­ing sub- rule shall be sub­sti­tut­ed, namely:-

(2) Every assessee, shall, on demand make avail­able to the offi­cer empow­ered under sub- rule (1) or the audit par­ty deput­ed by the Com­mis­sion­er or the Comp­trol­ler and Audi­tor Gen­er­al of India, or a cost accoun­tant or char­tered accoun­tant nom­i­nat­ed under sec­tion 72A of the Finance Act, 1994;-

(i) the records main­tained or pre­pared by him in term of sub-rule (2) of Rule 5;

(ii) the cost audit reports, if any, under sec­tion 148 of the Com­pa­nies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013); and

(iii) the income-tax audit report, if any, under sec­tion 44AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961),

for the scruti­ny of the offi­cer or the audit par­ty, or the cost accoun­tant or char­tered accoun­tant, with­in the time lim­it spec­i­fied by the said offi­cer or the audit par­ty or the cost accoun­tant, as the case may be.”

The fol­low­ing changes have been tak­en place in the afore men­tioned rule if com­par­i­son made with the old provisions:

S.No. Par­tic­u­lars Ear­li­er Provisions Sub­sti­tut­ed Provisions
1. Offi­cers Empowered 1.      Offi­cers autho­rized under sub-rule (1)

2.      the audit par­ty  deput­ed by the Com­mis­sion­er or the Comp­trol­ler and Audi­tor Gen­er­al of India

1.        Offi­cers empow­ered under sub-rule (1)

2.         or the audit par­ty  deput­ed by the Com­mis­sion­er or the Comp­trol­ler and Audi­tor Gen­er­al of India

3.        Cost Accoun­tant or Char­tered Accountant

2. Cost audit report Not required to be furnished Cost audit report may be required to be furnished
3. Time Lim­it for sub­mis­sion of documents With­in rea­son­able time but not exceed­ing 15 days No time lim­it specify

These amend­ments have been brought via Noti­fi­ca­tion No. 23/2014- Ser­vice Tax.

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