Amendment in Rule 5A(2) of Service Tax Rules, 1994 (Power of making demand of financial records from assessee

CBEC has amended Rule 5A(2) of Service Tax Rules, 1994 to empower the Chartered Accountants and Cost Accountant for conducting service tax audits.

For granting such empowerment and for making some other changes in the Service Tax Rules, 1994, in rule  5A, for sub-rule (2), the following sub- rule shall be substituted, namely:-

“(2) Every assessee, shall, on demand make available to the officer empowered under sub- rule (1) or the audit party deputed by the Commissioner or the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, or a cost accountant or chartered accountant nominated under section 72A of the Finance Act, 1994;-

(i) the records maintained or prepared by him in term of sub-rule (2) of Rule 5;

(ii) the cost audit reports, if any, under section 148 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013); and

(iii) the income-tax audit report, if any, under section 44AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961),

for the scrutiny of the officer or the audit party, or the cost accountant or chartered accountant, within the time limit specified by the said officer or the audit party or the cost accountant, as the case may be.”

The following changes have been taken place in the afore mentioned rule if comparison made with the old provisions:

These amendments have been brought via Notification No. 23/2014- Service Tax.