Officers of the Directorate General of Audit vested with powers of Central Excise Officers
Central Board of Excise and Customs has appointed the Officers of Directorate General of Audit, Customs and Central Excise, as Central Excise Officers and invests them with all the powers of Central Excise Officer corresponding to their Ranks. They shall exercise these powers throughout the territory of India.
Serial No. | Officer | Central Excise officers whose powers are to be exercised |
|---|---|---|
(1) | (2) | (3) |
1. | Additional Director General | Commissioner |
2. | Additional Director | Additional Commissioner |
3. | Joint Director | Joint Commissioner |
4. | Deputy Director or Assistant Director | Deputy Commissioner or Assistant Commissioner |
5. | Superintendent | Superintendent |
6. | Inspector | Inspector |
Interestingly, it may be noted that Rule 22 (1) of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 states that an Officer empowered by the Commissioner shall have access to the registered premises of the assessees and such assessees shall furnish a list of records as detailed in sub-rule (2) thereof, in duplicate. All the Officers working in the Audit wings of all the Commissionerates across the country are empowered by the Commissioners under this Rule. Now, pursuant to this Notification, the respective Additional Director Generals in charge of various jurisdictions across the country have to empower the Officers working under them with access to the registered premises.
This leads to an absurd situation because CBEC had issued a host of Circulars in the past outlining the guidelines to be followed by field formations in implementing and conducting Central Excise Audits and Service Tax Audits in the EA-2000 format in consultation with the DG (Audit). Hitherto, prior to the issue of this Notification these Officers working in various cells coming under the purview of DG (Audit) have been conducting regular Audits, especially Audits of assessees who had multi-locational units. Now does it mean that the Audits conducted by such Officers in the past were without jurisdiction and illegal? Are the visits of such Officers to the premises of the assessees without the authority of law? May be Board has an answer.
NOTIFICATION NO , Dated: June 5, 2008