Be Ready for Departmental GST Audit Post 31st August 2019  

Directorate General (DG) of Audit (Indirect Taxes) releases Audit Plan for Audit u/s 65(1) of the CGST Act, the year 2019-20. Key features of the released document are as follows:

1.   Taxpayers have been divided with 3 categories - Large, Medium (and Small based on GSTR 3B filed for July 17 to March 18.

2.   Categorization of taxpayers has been done based on total taxable and zero-rated supply excluding non-GST Supply.

3.   Only those taxpayers who have filed their Annual Returns should be selected for audits, Commissionerate have been advised to continue conducting legacy audits under Central Excise and Service Tax up to August 31

4.    Till the Audit module in CBIC-GST system becomes operational Intimation in ADT-01 and findings in ADT- 02 may be conveyed manually.

5.  Desk based (office) audit instead of premises-based audit to be done for small taxpayers.

6.   Officers have been advised to complete the audit within a period of 3 months of its commencement as provided u/s 65(4) of CGST Act, 2017.

7.   Audit process will be like the audit process in erstwhile Central Excise and Service Tax Audit Manual.

Copy of Audit Plan dated June 25, 2019 issued by Directorate General of Audit (Indirect Taxes) can be downloaded from here.

Ashu Dalmia