The GST authorities have rolled out the GST audit plan and strategy for FY 2019-20 in respect of the GST audit to be conducted for FY 2017-18. The objective of rolling this strategy plan is to standardise the procedure among all GST Audit Commissionerate(s) pan-India and provide guidance to the audit teams on the entire workflow and related processes.
The Directorate General of Audit, Indirect Taxes (‘DG Audit’) has rolled out an internal communication in this regard. The GST audit plan and strategy have been designed in a way to target high-risk Taxpayers and avoid causing any inconvenience to small taxpayers. While the DG audit has been issuing similar guidance even during the pre-GST era, the current audit plan and strategy mark a clear focus on risk assessment with scientific parameters, time-bound audits and early adjudication.
The GST audit of Taxpayers was to commence from 1 July 2019, in respect of those taxpayers who have filed their Annual Return in Form GSTR - 9/ Form GSTR - 9A. Pursuant to extension of the last date till 31 August 2019 during the 35th GST Council Meeting, the commencement of audit stands postponed.
The DG Audit in association with the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (‘DGARM’) have developed a Risk Assessment programme to provide valuable inputs to the GST Authorities for conducting GST audits. This program is aimed at making a scientific and risk-based selection of Taxpayers for audit and not causing inconvenience to small and compliant taxpayers.
A list of taxpayers with risk scores would be generated and made available to each Audit Commissionerate through DDM Portal. The Taxpayers would be further flagged based the risk as Flag A, Flag B, Flag C etc. A separate document in PDF format shows list of Risk Flags and the action points for decision support to facilitate the auditors in identifying the areas to focus during audit.
The Taxpayers are categorised based on the annual turnover as under:
The turnover includes total taxable, exempt and zero-rated clearances of goods and services but excludes on-GST supplies during a financial year.
The categorization is based on the turnover disclosed in GSTR - 3B returns filed for the 9 months period from July 2017 to March 2018 and extrapolating the 9 months’ turnover to that of 12 months.
The list contains only those taxpayers who are under Centre administration and have filed more than 3 GSTR - 3B returns in the 9 months’ period.
The GST Audit Commissionerate(s) have been advised to check all other aspects as well which are found necessary at their local level. The risk profiling given the DG Audit and DGARM is only as a measure of decision support on the basis of risk analysis undertaken on pre-defined parameters setup in the available data. All issues having revenue implications to be duly examined.
DGARM还建立了一套反馈机制，用于评估风险参数的有效性。这将有助于在未来对风险参数进行适当的调整。各商品及服务税（GST）审计专员公署也应就用于纳税人筛选的本地风险参数分享其反馈意见。
审计总局（DG Audit）已根据现有审计小组的数量及GST官员的在岗人数，计算出各GST审计专员公署在每个类别中应开展的近似审计数量。人力分配及审计天数考虑如下：
审计纳税人名单的筛选应基于以下原则：
针对小型纳税人，建议采用案头审计而非实地审计。案头审计将基于纳税人提供的信息/数据进行。若纳税人不予配合或其内部控制系统存在固有缺陷，经管辖区GST专员事先批准，可进行实地审计。
所有大型和中型纳税人必须接受实地审计。
在CBIC-GST系统的审计模块投入使用前，以GST ADT-01和GST ADT-02表格形式发出的强制性通知可手动发送。上述通知应发送给纳税人以获取相应回复，并根据既定程序记录必要的调查结果进行裁定。
根据《中央商品及服务税法》（CGST Act）第65(4)条，GST官员须在审计开始后的三个月内完成审计工作。
已建议各GST审计专员公署以尽量减少不便且不干扰纳税人业务的方式开展审计。由于纳税人可能对审计概念较为陌生，应特别注意减少争议。若纳税人在审计期间提出请求，GST官员亦应就GST相关规定向纳税人提供指导。
审计总局发布的GST审计计划和策略是一项值得欢迎的举措，它为纳税人提供了宝贵的指导，有助于其进行充分规划并配合GST当局按时完成审计。采用基于集中式风险评估的筛选流程、限时审计以及标准化程序，增强了纳税人之间的透明度。这些GST审计计划措施将对促进印度的营商便利化大有裨益。
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