Section 254 of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 relates to appeals before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) by assessees and the tax department. It also deals with the law relating to grant of stay of demand on assessees’ petitions. This section was amended w.e.f. June 1, 2001, to provide that where in an appeal filed by the assessee, the Tribunal passes an order granting stay of demand, it shall hear and decide such appeal within 180 days from the date of passing of stay order, failing which, the stay granted shall stand vacated on the expiry of this period.
This programme of enterprise-wide risk management was highly successful and resulted in substantial savings and structured decision-making with learnings for the company. The Board appreciated the consulting role of the Internal Audit Department which had fulfilled its role aptly described as ‘Best Practice Transfer and Risk Management’ and directed the CIA to ensure that this programme was spread to all functions of the company. The Board also directed the CIA to submit a list of top 50 risks (along with remedial measure taken and proposals for taking remedial measures, if not already undertaken) identified during the exercise every quarter. The structure of risk management within the company was thus institutionalised.
Using several features of the audit tools, the auditor was able to increase the depth of his audit and also do it faster. In this way, he was able to focus on streamlining processes and spend more time interacting with officials on business issues which were useful sources for analytical information. This was appreciated by the management.
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Using the analysis done offline in India, the auditors were able to focus their energies during a short visit on the core-concern areas and arrive at conclusions that were startling. Considering the focus on accountability in the US with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, the CEO and the CFO were taken aback at the status of internal controls in their organisation. Emergency measures to establish an elaborate exercise for implementing a robust internal control system with self- ssessment questionnaires was taken. Considering the success that Raj and his team had in meeting these new challenges, the management asked Raj whether his team would take this assignment in addition to the audit responsibility, which he gladly accepted. This resulted in considerable cost savings. Further, looking at the tremendous cost savings and approach towards auditing by Raj and his team, a performance bonus was sanctioned.
The top management of a chemical company, with 400 crores turnover, is extremely happy with its internal audit department specially with the cost saving measures recommended by the department. The company has two plants in Thane (Mumbai) and Vapi (Gujarat), with its corporate headquarters. The company is presently facing problems with high cost of production and is finding that the products manufactured at its Thane and Vapi plants are not competitive vis-à-vis other chemical manufacturers in the organised sector. The company also finds that the shutdown hours for the factories were quite high. The Managing Director holds a meeting with the Chief Internal Auditor (CIA) and requests him to conduct a review of Thane and Vapi plant production units’ operations and suggest improvement measures to ensure that the plant is more efficient and effective to maintain its competitiveness vis-à-vis the threat from competitors. He also informs the CIA how important it is to reduce cost of operations, failing which he is concerned that the units would have to be closed down in the near future.
Timely preparation of manual for all major processes at CFS helped the company to run the operations effectively and efficiently. The manual preparation exercise created a bond between the internal audit team and the operational staff which resulted in a healthy interaction during continuous monthly internal audit. The internal audit issues raised found acceptability and quick implementation of suggestions by auditees which led to strengthening of the business processes. The Managing Director appreciated the efforts of the internal audit team.
The departmental heads who were earlier sceptical of the role of internal audit were appreciative of the internal audit reviews carried out and also started making number of requests for internal auditing of all new processes including new computer applications. They also requested internal auditors for continuous assurance work including reviews of all processes from time to time. This led the Chief Internal Auditor to prioritise internal audit work based on availability of resources and also on the criticality of process.
In a large engineering company operating in Western India having global operation, a new Chief Audit Executive (CAE) was appointed. The CAE had joined this organisation based on the public positioning of the group but felt disappointed within a few months of joining. The organisation had grown organically and was largely family-owned with the senior management being hands on with the operations of the company. The Internal Audit culture had not yet matured and was largely focussed on ‘compliance’. The budget was not sufficient as the management had very low level of expectations from the internal audit function which was mainly compliance-driven.
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