Sub: - Commercial Taxes Department- Conduct of Audits/Inspections/ Returns Scrutiny by the Audit Officers/proper Officers - Constitution of Audit, Inspection and Return Scrutiny Monitoring Committees at Head Office and at Regional Offices for finalizing Audit/ Inspection reports - Orders issued -Regarding.

Ref: 1. CCST. Ref.No. GST (Audit)/1/2022, dated: 11-02-2022

2. G.O.Ms.No: 419, Revenue (CT-I) Department, dated: 01-06-2022.

3. CCST. Ref.No. GST (Audit)/1/2022, dated: 19-08-2022.

4. CST Ref.No. GST (Audit)/1/2022, dt. 7-10-2022.

To ensure the GST Audits to be carried out in an efficient and transparent manner, with uniformity in Departmental Actions, an Audit Monitoring Committee (AMC) has been constituted in the ref 1st cited. Subsequently in view of reorganization and re-structuring of the department, the Audit Monitoring Committee was reconstituted, in the ref 4th cited, with the following members: -Commissioner (GST Audit)-Member and Convener,

Addl. Commissioner (ST), Regional GST Audit and Enforcement Office, Vijayawada - Member

Joint Commissioner (Enforcement I)- Member.

Joint Commissioner (Enforcement-II) - Member

2. As per the mandate prescribed, the AMC has been reviewing the audit discrepancy reports being submitted by the audit officers all over the State and making suitable suggestions and modifications in the reports wherever required.

3. Apart from Audits under Section 65, Inspections under Section 67 and Scrutiny of Returns under Section 61 of the APGST Act, 2017 are also being done by the proper Officers/Audit Officers in the State.

4. In view of large no of audits/inspections/ scrutiny of returns allocated to the officers State-wide so far and further cases to be allocated hereafter, in order to have in depth scrutiny of the allotted cases, to improve skills and quality of assessments by the department officers and to strictly follow the timelines prescribed in the APGST Act 2017, it is proposed to constitute State AIMC and Regional AIMCs at different levels.

5. The newly proposed structure would be as follows:-

i) State AIMC (State Audit, Inspection and Return Scrutiny Monitoring Committee)

ii) Regional AIMC (Regional Audit, Inspection and Return Scrutiny Monitoring Committee), Vijayawada;

iii) Regional AIMC (Regional Audit, Inspection and Return Scrutiny Monitoring Committee) Visakhapatnam; and

iv) Regional AIMC (Regional Audit, Inspection and Return Scrutiny Monitoring Committee) Tirupati.

State AIMC: - This Committee will scrutinize all the Audit, Inspection and Return Scrutiny cases allotted to the Audit Officers/proper Officers in the State level Audit Teams and cases allotted to Regional Audit and Enforcement Offices and Division/Circle offices where the tax effect of deviation/ discrepancy identified during an audit/inspection/return scrutiny is Rs.50.00 lakhs and above. The members of the Committee are:-

1. Commissioner (Audit) - Member and Convener

2. Joint Commissioner (ST) -Enforcement - I

3. Joint Commissioner (ST) - Enforcement- II

Regional AIMCs, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati:-

These Committees will scrutinize the Audit, Inspection and Return Scrutiny cases allotted to the proper Officers/ Audit Officers in the respective Regional Audit & Enforcement Offices and in the Divisions/Circles in the territorial purview of respective RO & EO offices where the tax effect of deviation/discrepancy identified during an audit/inspection/return scrutiny is less than Rs.50.00 lakhs.

6. The Members of the Regional AIMCs, Vijayawada, visakhapatnam and Tirupati are as follows:

7. Role and responsibilities of the AIMCs:

1. In case of Audits under Section 65, the Audit Officers, after verification of Books of Accounts and financial records of the Taxpayers fully and thoroughly should prepare a discrepancy report basing on audit observations. The draft Audit Report has to be submitted to the respective State AIMC/Regional AIMC for review and approval of the paras raised.

2. In case of Inspections under Section 67, the Authorized officers, after verification of books of accounts, financial records and issues noticed during search/inspection, shall prepare and submit a report on the findings made, to the respective State/Regional AIMC for review and approval.

3. In case of scrutiny of returns, the proper Officers shall submit a weekly report on each of the cases disposed by issue of ASMT-12 along with replies/objections/documents submitted by the Taxpayers for perusal of the State/Regional AIMCs.

4. The AIMCs constituted herein shall meet every week and scrutinize each of the objections/discrepancies in the reports for both technical and legal sustainability. If the Committee finds any ambiguity or vagueness in the report, AIMC may direct the proper officer/audit officer to amend or re-examine the report on such findings.

5. If it is found that the proper Officer/Audit Officer has not gone through all the records or not verified all the transactions of the taxpayer, the AIMC shall direct the concerned officer to verify all the records once again and submit a detailed report within 15 days.

6. Wherever there is a disagreement on certain paras/findings by the AIMC those paras/findings shall not be included in the final reports to be issued to the tax payer.

7. If the Audit/proper officer opines that a particular disagreed finding/observation by AIMC be included in the final report/notice, such issues may be represented before the AIMC concerned with proper documentary evidence in person and obtain approval of AIMC for inclusion in the final report/notice to be issued to the taxpayer.

8. The AIMCs shall meet every week and review the discrepancy/deviation reports on audits/inspections submitted by the assessing officers/proper officers and issue appropriate directions.

9. With regard to scrutiny of returns, the AIMCs shall go through the reports submitted by the Officers concerned, verify their correctness and make a report in case any omissions/commissions are noticed and submit a report to the State AIMC duly suggesting further course of action.

10. Minutes of the meetings conducted by the AIMCs shall be communicated to the audit officers/proper officers immediately with a copy to State AIMC for information.

11. The AIMCs will circulate the noteworthy findings, if any among all the officers in the Department for guidance and implementation with copy to State AIMC.

These orders will come into force with immediate effect.

M Girija Shankar IAS

Chief Commissioner of State Tax

Andhra Pradesh, Vijayawada.