Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Excise & Customs)
New Delhi, Dated the
3rd February, 2010
To,
All Director Generals,
All Chief Commissioners of Central Excise (including LTU)
All Commissioners of Central Excise (including LTU)
Sir/Madam,
Subject: Modification of Circular No. 5/83-CX.6 dated 10.03.83- Issue of show
cause notice on receipt of Audit objections from CERA.
Attention is invited to Board’s Circular No. 5/83-CX.6 dated 10.03.83, as
amended, wherein instructions have been issued to issue show cause notice
immediately on receipt of an Audit objection from CERA, even if the objection is
not admitted. The field formations have also been directed to issue protective
demand notices and transfer the same to Call Book, till the settlement of the
objection.
- It has been noticed that during audit by C&AG officers, Local Audit Paras
(LAR) are initially raised, some of them are converted to Statement of Facts
(SOF). A few SOF are made into Draft Audit Para (DAP). Generally, a LAR is
converted into SOF within a period of 6 months. In some cases, it has been
noticed that objections raised in LAR is not accepted by the department but the
reply given by the department is also not accepted by AG’s office. Further, if
the said LAR is not converted to SOF/ DAP, the said objection remain unsettled
and these show cause notices are transferred to Call Book. For these cases,
jurisdictional Commissioners are required to hold meeting with local DAGs to
settle the objection. However, in many cases, these issues are not settled for a
long period.
- The issue has been examined. It is clarified that in cases where a LAR has
not been admitted by the department, and the same is not converted into SOF/ DAP
by CERA, then the SCNs issued on account of said LAR may be adjudicated after a
period of one year from the date of sending the reply to the LAR. However,
before adjudication, it must be ensured that the LAR has not been converted into
SOF/ DAP.
- Instruction issued by Circular No. 5/83-CX.6 dated 10.03.83 is modified
accordingly.
- Receipt of this circular may kindly be acknowledged.
Yours faithfully,
(V.P. Singh)
Under Secretary(CX-6)
F. No. 206/02/2010-CX.6
Copy to: The Commissioner(PAC) for information.