Maintenance and furnishing of records in service tax - reg. - Service Tax - F.No.137/26/2007-CX.4

Maintenance and furnishing of records in service tax - reg. F.No.137/26/2007-CX.4 Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue (Central Board of Excise and Customs) * * * New Delhi, dated 1 st January,2008 To, (1) The Director General (Audit) (2) The Director General of Service Tax, Mumbai (3) The Chief Commissioners of Central Excise Service Tax (All) (4) The Commissioner of Service Tax (All) Madam/Sir, Subject : Maintenance and furnishing of records in service tax - reg. Rule 5 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 prescribes, inter alia, that records (including computerized records) maintained by the taxpayer in accordance with various laws are acceptable. In this rule, a new sub-rule (2) has been incorporated vide Notification No.45/2007-ST dated 28.12.07 to prescribe that the assessee while filing first return or the 31 st day of January 2008, whichever is later, would furnish a list of following records maintained by him for accounting of transactions in regard to providing any service, whether taxable or exempted; receipt or procurement of input services and payment for such input services; receipt, purchase, manufacture, storage, sale, delivery or, as the case may be, in regard of inputs and capital goods; other activities, such as, manufacture and sale of goods, if any, all financial records and statements. A new rule 5A has also been incorporated in the said Rules to prescribe that an officer authorized by the Commissioner shall have access to any premises registered under the Service Tax Rules for the purpose of carrying out any scrutiny, verification and checks as may be necessary to safeguard the interest of revenue and that the assessee shall provided, on demand, the specified records including trial balance or the equivalent. It may be noted that this rule does not envisage issue of any notification by a Commissioner for such authorization of officers. The requirement of authorization could be fulfilled by issue of an office order. 2. In this regard, it is clarified that records/documents required to be maintained under various laws such as the Income ax Act, Companies Law, the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004, VAT and other State legislation would be acceptable, and the amendment made in the rule does not cast any additional responsibility on taxpayers in terms of maintenance of records. 3. The list of records, as required to be provided under said sub-rule(2) should be submitted once only. Once filed, further intimation would be required to be given only in case there is any change in the list (i.e.addition, deletion, modification in the types of records maintained) that had been furnished by the assessee. 4. A copy of the list furnished by the assessee would be sent of the jurisdictional Superintendent to the audit section. 5. The audit team or any other officer authorized by the Commissioner to visit the registered premises of an assessee shall give prior intimation to the assessee along with the list of documents that he requires for the purpose of scrutiny, verification or audit. 6. The taxpayer shall provide the records as requested by the authorized officer within a period of fifteen days from the date of request. In case, the taxpayer is unable to produce any of the records called for within the stipulated time, he shall intimate the same along with reasons for non-production of records, and the officer may allow further time for production of such records keeping in view the overall facts into account. 7. These amendments have been made in the service tax rules to enable the duly authorized officer to carry out audit or scrutiny as may be necessary to safeguard the interest of revenue. Yours faithfully, Sd/- (Gautam Bhattacharya) Commissioner (Service Tax)