FM Wants To Strengthen Audit Of Excise Accounts

New Delhi: Worried over the high degree of excise duty evasion in certain sectors, the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, seeks to strengthen the audit of excise accounts. He has also urged the State Governments to share information on state-level value added tax (VAT) collections with the excise department to help identify cases of excise duty evasion. The audit must yield larger revenues. On the issue of sharing of information on VAT collections by the States with the Centre, the Finance Minister said that, as a rule, the trend in VAT collections must be more or less reflected in the trend in excise collections. If there is an upswing in the VAT collections of a product manufactured and sold, likewise there must be an upswing in excise collections from that product. Mr Chidambaram also said that the revenue department at the Centre had already undertaken an information sharing exercise with the Andhra Government officials.

The Finance Minister also pointed out that a number of measures had already been taken to curb excise evasion. The Government has made it mandatory for assesses with excise duty obligation of over Rs 50 lakhs to make e-payments only. Mr Chidambaram highlighted that 89 per cent of excise duty collections are made through e-payment mode. Meanwhile, in a significant change in the pattern of excise duty collections, Mr Chidambaram said in fiscal 2006-07 the payment through Cenvat credit exceeded the cash payment through personnel ledger account (PLA). The negative spin is there may be misuse of Cenvat credit.