Audit:

By Vijay Kumar

• As far as possible there should be only one audit visit. The documents required can be sought for through other means (courier and e-mail) . A visit can be avoided for collection of data. As far as possible, the team that visits for data collection should also visit for audit.

• Travel facilities for the audit team should be made available by the Department. ( Even now the assessee is not required to provide transport)

• The practice of issuing show cause notice as a result of CERA objection shall not be followed where the policy decision/notification are objected by CERA. ( this recommendation actually did not come from the trade in the Work shop; it was from the department)

• There should be on site consultation between CAG and assessees and assessees’ views should be recorded. ( this is another departmental suggestion)

We will bring you more recommendations on Monday but here are some quotes from the Lok Satta website.

Money is not in short supply, good governance is!

++ More money is not the answer, better ways of utilizing it are!

++ We have over 30,000 central and State laws. Many of them are relics of the colonial past. Even the sensible laws are not enforced properly.

++ Might is right, and people approach criminal lords for rough and ready justice. In time, these criminals become politicians, and lord over the police.

++ the roles of master and servant are reversed. The citizen has become the slave, and the employer has become the 'maibap'.

A uniformed inspector asked me outside the venue, “Why don’t you ask them to discuss in the workshop the problems of grass-root workers of Central Excise – like Inspectors?”