Manufacturers subjected to two Audits in a year
IN a recent RAC meeting of the Hyderabad Central Excise Zone recently, a point was raised:
Many manufacturers are subject to two audits almost at the same time. First Excise Audit will be done which will cover areas of Excise, Customs and Service Tax etc. After few months a notice is received that Service Tax department is coming for audit. The industry wants to know whether service tax audit is also done for a manufacturer who is merely a Service Recipient and not providing any taxable service.
The department replied:
Central Excise & Service Tax Audit of a unit is generally conducted simultaneously at single point of time to avoid multiple visits, wherever the registration of Service Tax as well as Central Excise fall in the same Commissionerate. Whenever Central Excise Registration is falling under one Commissionerate and Centralized Service Tax Registration is under other Commissionerate, this situation may arise. However, this problem will be addressed effectively when new Audit Commissionerates are formed in the ensuing reorganization.