THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA
G:142:05:2018-19
May 30, 2018
Shri Zubair Riaz,
Director (Customs)
Department of Revenue,
Ministry of Finance
Government of India
North Block, New Delhi
Subject: Inclusion of Cost Accountants for undertakings/submission of Certificates to the exporters to overcome the problem of refund blockage and post audit scrutiny
Respected Sir,
Please refer to the Circular No.12/2018 – Customs dated 29th May, 2018 on the subject citied above. It is to bring to your kind notice that Cost Accountants have been excluded for providing certification to the exporters whose refunds are processed/sanctioned with respect to cases pertaining to no short payment/short payment.
We would like to bring to your kind notice that Cost Accountants are recognized for GST -Procedural Compliance.
“Special audit by the Chartered Accountant/Cost Accountant may be undertaken for units selected based on the risk parameters identified by CBEC in order to verify correctness of declared production capacity and production or overvaluation of supplies. Such special audit shall be undertaken only with the approval of the Commissioner, CGST.”
We hereby again request you to consider Cost Accountants for such certification and submit the following for your kind perusal and consideration.
1. Cost Accountants are recognized for providing various professional services at par with Chartered Accountants under the following Sections of Central Goods & Services Tax Act, 2017.
- Section 35 (5): “Every registered person whose turnover during a financial year exceeds the prescribed limit shall get his accounts audited by a chartered accountant or a cost accountant and shall submit a copy of the audited annual accounts, the reconciliation statement under sub-section (2) of section 44 and such other documents in such form and manner as may be prescribed”
- Section 66(1) :”If at any stage of scrutiny, inquiry, investigation or any other proceedings before him, any 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 the prior approval of the Commissioner, direct such registered person by a communication in writing to get his records including books of account examined and audited by a chartered accountant or a cost accountant as may be nominated by the Commissioner”
- Section 116: Cost Accountants are recognized as Authorized Representative to appear before an officer appointed under the Act, or the Appellate Authority or the Appellate Tribunal in connection with any proceedings under the Act.
- Section 48 of the CGST Act, read with Rule 24 of the Return Rules, authorize Cost Accountant as an eligible person to act as approved Goods and Services Tax Practitioner.
Further, Cost Accountants are also authorized to provide similar professional services under Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and State Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
Railway Board has also included Cost Accountants to certify the work sheet of tax liability before GST and after GST to be submitted by contractors.
From time to time, Institute has submitted to GST Council and other Ministries, issues and challenges in GST implementation and suggestions to overcome such barriers.
Further, Institute has also represented the meeting called by GoM constituted by the GSTN, in simplifying the GST returns and also submitted valuable inputs.
The Institute also, conducts seminars, workshops and webinars on GST and other tax related issues on a regular basis for brushing up the knowledge of Members and other stake holders.
Further, the Institute also conducts webinars and release fortnightly Tax Bulletin to increase the Competency of the Members and GST practitioners in the field of GST.
The Institute has published a “Guidance Note on Anti Profiteering” to guide the members of the Institute and all other stakeholders on the subject in order to protect the interest of consumers.
2. To add on, many Government Departments, Public Sector Undertakings are taking the professional services of Cost Accountants in the area of GST.
3. Cost Accountants are recognized for providing various professional services at par with Chartered Accountants under Handbook of Procedures (2015-20) notified by the Director General of Foreign Trade:
In view of the above submission and in the light of natural justice, fair play, equity and ensuring compliance in accordance with the GST Act, we request you to include Cost Accountants for providing the certificate as above.
Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely,
CMA Niranjan Mishra
Chairman – Taxation Committee
I can say it is not the mind set of the business fraternity but the mind set of highly educated professional and official who has been involved in issuing the said circular, it is not the exclusion unintentionally, but the said exclusion is with very much intentionally, there is a story in this reference that two cat’s were fighting for a cake, a monkey has come eaten away completely by taking small, small piece from the whole, hence I would suggest the professional fraternity not to fight each other which will result the complete loss to both,
I would recall SEBI has removed CA’s from Fair Value Certification. Here CMA’s are at par as per GST Act, Why certificate from CA’s from refund.
Thanking tax guru for providing a platform to share the details.
It takes time to change the mind set of business men across the nation who got used to getting various certificates from ca’s in pre gst era.ca and cwa institutes needs to share the existing customer base and make efforts to increase the size of the cake of business.
due to complete depedance of indirect taxes system on gstin portal the scope of interllectuals and experienced and professionals in practice and also senior expert officers in the commissionerates of gst are not in a postion apply their expertise to complications in the taxes which is reduced to matching and mis matching by the software companies without involving legal eagles opinions on the past case laws, accepted practices and procedures followed in pre gst era.
if u even look at aadhar card developed for huge fortunes and profits by software companies from govt. orders of center/states, the earlier issued aadhar card had only year of birth, now all applications for govt licences, pass ports, banks etc are asking for complete date of birth,. the variations in names spellings of candidates or father names are also grounds for delays in getting the work done. that is the worth of our information technology techno commercial savvy businessmen who are above the normal geniuses but fail to look into the legal aspects of law of land before fooling around with their fancy ideas and aadhar, pan cards submission to public. who will bear the cost of rectifications and harassment of public. morale of the story is automation should confirm to common sense, legal requirements, public utility and reliability and endurance over a period of years keeping aside artificial intelligence
thanking tax guru to provide platform to public/ masses to air their grievances for action.