Computer assisted excise audit for smooth collection in metros
Laptop carrying excise auditors will enter into a factory download the company’s financial details and pass them through data interogation software for better detection and recovery excise duties.
Sources close to the development told that the government is setting up four Computer assisted Audit programme (CAAP) centres at Gurgaon, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai within two to three months. Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has already given an in-principle approval, and the financial sanction is expected any time soon.
Through such systems were earlier introdced in Ahmedabad, Indore, Bangalore and Pune, the present exercise could be more fruitful as it will be backed by a newly created Computer assisted Audit programme (CAAP) manual. This along with a few other manuals, covering areas like risk management and quality assurance, may help CBEC to streamline the collection and settlement process.
These new centres will have 15-16 auditors who will be divided into four teams. Auditors are done for about 6000 large manufacturing units in India which pay a duty of Rs.1 crore or more per year.
A senior DBEC official told that the computer assisted programme, backed by a well prepared manual, would be quite effective. He said this would not only help them detecting their cases better, but the recovery would also go up substantially. He also said that it would help them convincing the tax payers as they would now have clear cut evidence and they could expect easy settlements in case of any dispute.
Significantly, there are instances where the excise department accuses a company of clandestine removal of goods worth a huge sum if money, but cant substantiate that with scientific data. analysts feel that Computer assisted Audit programme (CAAP) will help in that respect.
