GST Audit Support in Bharat Petroleum Vanagaram, Chennai

Sub-section (1) of Section 65 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act empowers the Commissioner, or any officer authorised by him through a general or specific order, to undertake audit of any registered person for such period, frequency and manner as may be prescribed. Sub-section (2) provides that the audit may be conducted either at the place of business of the registered person or at the office of the proper officer. It is to be noted that this provision is the substantive source of departmental audit jurisdiction and is read with Rule 101 for procedural mechanics.

Sub-section (1) of Section 66 provides that if at any stage of scrutiny, inquiry, investigation or any other proceedings, the officer not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner, having regard to the nature and complexity of the case and the interest of revenue, is of the opinion that the value has not been correctly declared or the credit availed is not within the normal limits, he may, with prior approval of the Commissioner, direct the registered person to get the records including books of account examined and audited by a chartered accountant or a cost accountant nominated by the Commissioner.

Sub-rule (1) of Rule 101 provides that the period of audit shall be a financial year or part thereof or multiples thereof. Sub-rule (2) prescribes Form GST ADT-01 for the audit notice. Sub-rule (4) directs the proper officer, on conclusion of audit, to record the audit observations in his audit notes and to inform the registered person of the discrepancies, who may file his reply. Sub-rule (5) prescribes Form GST ADT-02 for communication of audit findings.

Sub-section (1) of Section 35 obliges every registered person to keep and maintain, at his principal place of business, a true and correct account of production or manufacture of goods, inward and outward supply of goods or services, stock of goods, input tax credit availed, output tax payable and paid, and such other particulars as may be prescribed. It is to be noted that the records framework under this section is the substratum on which any audit, scrutiny or adjudication proceeds.

Sub-section (7) of Section 65 provides that where the audit results in detection of tax not paid or short paid, erroneously refunded, or input tax credit wrongly availed or utilised, the proper officer may initiate action under Section 73 or Section 74. It is to be noted that this sub-section is the statutory bridge between the audit conclusion and adjudication proceedings.

Section 67 confers on the proper officer not below the rank of Joint Commissioner the power, where he has reasons to believe that a registered person has suppressed any transaction or has claimed input tax credit in excess of his entitlement or has indulged in contravention of any of the provisions of the Act with intent to evade tax, to authorise in writing any other officer to inspect any places of business. It is to be noted that Section 67 is a distinct enforcement track and is not the same as the audit jurisdiction under Section 65.

What is a GST audit and where does it sit in the compliance architecture

Self-certification under GSTR-9C and its audit interplay

Until Finance Act 2021 amendments, Section 35(5) had required certification of GSTR-9C by a Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant for registered persons whose aggregate turnover exceeded the prescribed threshold. The Finance Act 2021 substituted Section 35(5) and amended Section 44, shifting GSTR-9C to a self-certified reconciliation statement filed by the registered person without third-party attestation, effective FY 2020-21 onwards (Notification 29/2021-CT). The reconciliation in GSTR-9C between audited financial statements and GSTR-9 annual return is now an internal-control disclosure; it does not substitute for departmental audit under Section 65. Audit teams treat GSTR-9C self-certified reconciliations as primary working papers — Table 5 (turnover reconciliation), Table 9 (tax payable reconciliation) and Table 12-14 (ITC reconciliation) become the starting points of Section 65 audit interrogation.

Comparative framework — VAT/CST audits versus GST audit

Pre-GST, the VAT regime in Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nadu VAT Act 2006) had an audit framework under Section 64 with mandatory CA audit certificates for dealers above prescribed turnover, and the Central Sales Tax framework had limited audit coverage focused on inter-State transactions. The GST framework consolidates and rationalises this — a single audit under Section 65 covers central, State and integrated tax dimensions; the cooperative-federal architecture under Article 246A and 279A means the audit can be conducted by either the central or State authority but not both (Section 6 cross-empowerment). The OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines emphasise audit-efficiency through risk-based selection and digital data analytics, both of which the Indian framework has incorporated through GSTN-driven analytics and the GSTR-9C self-certification feed.

Statutory framework under Chapter XIII of the CGST Act

The audit framework under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act 2017 is contained in Chapter XIII, comprising Sections 65, 66 and 71. Section 65 provides for departmental audit, Section 66 for special audit by a Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant nominated by the Commissioner, and Section 71 for access to business premises by an authorised officer. The Empowered Committee 2009 First Discussion Paper had envisaged audit as the principal verification layer in a self-assessment regime, replacing the pre-GST pattern of routine assessment under the VAT/CST framework. The architecture is risk-based: not every registered person is audited; selection is driven by Section 65(2) read with internal CBIC risk-management directions which factor in turnover scale, sectoral risk profile, prior compliance history and reconciliation gaps surfaced in GSTR-9C self-certification. The audit-process closure under Section 65(7) feeds either into a no-objection certificate, a voluntary DRC-03 payment, or an SCN under Section 73 or Section 74 depending on whether tax has been short-paid, short-collected or wrongly availed as ITC.

ADT-02 audit report

Reading the audit-observations and proper-officer reasoning

ADT-02 audit observations are structured around the verification heads — turnover under Section 9 read with Section 7, taxable value under Section 15, rate of tax under the rate notifications, ITC under Sections 16 to 21, refund under Sections 54 and 55, and miscellaneous compliance. Each observation typically includes the audit team's working, the discrepancy quantum, the section / rule under which the proposed addition is framed, and the proper officer's reasoning. The Kranti Associates v Masood Ahmed Khan (2010) Supreme Court principle on reasoned orders applies — the proper officer's reasoning must engage with the registered person's explanations and cannot be a mechanical reproduction of audit-team working. Where reasoning is absent or perfunctory, the registered person has stronger grounds in subsequent Section 73 / 74 proceedings or in a writ petition before the Madras High Court under Article 226.

Voluntary payment under Section 73(5) post ADT-02

Section 73(5) of the CGST Act allows the registered person to pay the tax along with interest under Section 50 on the basis of own ascertainment or as ascertained by the proper officer and inform the proper officer of such payment in Form DRC-03 before service of an SCN under Section 73(1). Where the registered person agrees with the ADT-02 findings, voluntary payment under Section 73(5) avoids the SCN cycle entirely and limits the financial impact to tax plus interest, without penalty. Section 73(6) then mandates that no SCN shall be issued in respect of the amount paid. This voluntary-payment route is the preferred audit-closure mechanism for genuine ITC errors, classification mis-applications and minor valuation gaps, and is widely used in practice.

Disagreement options post ADT-02

Where the registered person disagrees with one or more ADT-02 findings, the response options are: (a) file a Section 75 representation seeking re-consideration before the SCN stage; (b) await the SCN under Section 73 or 74 and contest at that stage; (c) where the audit findings are perceived as jurisdictionally infirm, file a writ petition before the Madras High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution. The writ remedy is typically reserved for jurisdictional infirmities — absence of Commissioner approval under Section 66, breach of the Section 65(4) timeline, denial of Section 75 opportunity of hearing — rather than for merit-based challenges. The Aap and Co v UoI (Gujarat HC) and Asahi India Glass v UoI (P&H HC) lines of authority offer guidance on writ-jurisdictional questions in audit and assessment matters.

ADT-03 cost recovery

Statutory basis under Section 66(4) and Rule 102

Form GST ADT-03 is the cost-recovery determination notice under Rule 102 of the CGST Rules read with Section 66(4) of the CGST Act. Section 66(4) provides that the expenses of the examination and audit of records under Section 66, including remuneration payable to the Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant nominated by the Commissioner, shall be determined and paid by the Commissioner; ADT-03 is the form through which this determination is communicated to the registered person, and the amount becomes payable as a Government dues recovery under Section 79. The Rule 102 framework was added to provide procedural clarity on the cost-recovery mechanism; comparative pre-GST excise (Section 14A Central Excise Act, since omitted) and service tax (Section 72A Finance Act 1994) had similar cost-recovery features.

Determination of remuneration and challenges

The Commissioner determines the remuneration of the nominated Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant under Section 66(4) based on rates broadly aligned with the ICAI and ICMAI minimum recommended scales for special-audit work. The registered person typically has no direct say in either the selection of the CA/CMA or the remuneration determination — both are administrative decisions of the Commissioner. Challenges to ADT-03 cost-recovery are rare in practice and usually focus on the underlying Section 66 nomination itself rather than the quantum. Where the Section 66 nomination was procedurally infirm (no Commissioner approval, no opportunity of being heard, no recorded reasons), the consequential ADT-03 cost-recovery similarly becomes vulnerable in writ proceedings. The OECD Forum on Tax Administration documents this cost-recovery pattern as common across jurisdictions that use specialist-audit tiers.

Payment timeline and Section 79 recovery framework

Once ADT-03 is served, the cost-recovery amount becomes payable within the timeline specified in the form (typically thirty days). Non-payment triggers Section 79 of the CGST Act — the Government dues recovery framework — which empowers the proper officer to recover the amount through modes including deduction from any amount due to the registered person, sale of any movable or immovable property, attachment of bank accounts under Section 83 provisional attachment, and recovery as land revenue arrears. The registered person can apply for instalment-payment under Section 80 read with Rule 158 where genuine financial hardship exists; the Commissioner has discretion to allow up to twenty-four monthly instalments subject to interest under Section 50.

Records retention under Section 35

Comparative framework — Income Tax Act 44AA and Companies Act records

The GST retention framework operates alongside the Income Tax Act Section 44AA requirement to maintain books of account for specified professions and businesses (with retention under Rule 6F for six years), and the Companies Act 2013 Section 128 requirement for books of account preservation for at least eight years preceding the current year. The longest applicable horizon governs — for a company carrying on a taxable supply business, the effective records-retention period is the Companies Act eight-year horizon. The OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines recommend a minimum retention of five years tied to the audit-period limitation, which the Indian GST framework comfortably exceeds. Coordinated retention policies across GST, income tax and Companies Act dimensions are the typical compliance design at well-run enterprises.

Statutory framework and retention horizon

Section 35(1) of the CGST Act requires every registered person to keep and maintain, at his principal place of business and at every additional place of business mentioned in the certificate of registration, a true and correct account of production or manufacture of goods, inward and outward supply of goods or services or both, stock of goods, input tax credit availed, output tax payable and paid, and such other particulars as may be prescribed. Section 36 mandates that every registered person required to keep books and accounts under Section 35 shall retain them until the expiry of seventy-two months from the due date of furnishing the annual return for the year pertaining to such accounts. The seventy-two-month (six-year) retention horizon aligns with the Section 73 normal-period limitation of three years from the due date of the annual return, and the Section 74 extended-period limitation of five years, with a safety margin.

Specific records prescribed under Rules 56 to 58

Rule 56 of the CGST Rules elaborates the records to be maintained under Section 35 — accounts of goods or services received and supplied, stock of goods (with opening balance, receipt, supply, goods lost stolen destroyed written off or disposed of by way of gift or free sample, balance), particulars of ITC availed, output tax payable and paid, names and complete addresses of suppliers and customers, complete addresses of premises where goods are stored including goods stored during transit, monthly production accounts (for manufacturers) showing quantitative details of raw materials and goods produced, and accounts of advances received and paid. Rule 57 provides for maintenance through electronic means with prescribed safeguards. Rule 58 covers transporter, owner and operator of warehouse records. The records-architecture is granular and audit teams systematically map registered-person records against the Rule 56 schema during Section 65 audits.

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