Section 71 of CGST Act,2017 - Access to business premises

Section 71 of CGST Act,2017 - Access to business premises

Section 71 of CGST Act,2017 from bare act : (1) Any officer under this Act, authorised by the proper officer not below the rankof Joint Commissioner, shall have access to any place of business of a registered person toinspect books of account, documents, computers, computer programs, computer softwarewhether installed in a computer or otherwise and such other things as he may require andwhich may be available at such place, for the purposes of carrying out any audit, scrutiny,verification and checks as may be necessary to safeguard the interest of revenue. (2) Every person in charge of place referred to in sub-section (1) shall, on demand,make available to the officer authorised under sub-section (1) or the audit party deputed bythe proper officer or a cost accountant or chartered accountant nominated undersection 66

(i) such records as prepared or maintained by the registered person and declaredto the proper officer in such manner as may be prescribed;

(ii) trial balance or its equivalent;

(iii) statements of annual financial accounts, duly audited, wherever required;

(iv) cost audit report, if any, under section 148 of the Companies Act, 2013;

(v) the income-tax audit report, if any, under section 44AB of the Income-taxAct, 1961; and

(vi) any other relevant record,

for the scrutiny by the officer or audit party or the chartered accountant or cost accountantwithin a period not exceeding fifteen working days from the day when such demand is made,or such further period as may be allowed by the said officer or the audit party or the charteredaccountant or cost accountant.

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CHAPTER XIV

INSPECTION, SEARCH, SEIZURE AND ARREST

Chapter XIV of the CGST Act,2017 covers six sections relating toINSPECTION, SEARCH, SEIZURE AND ARRESTunder GST. All thesesections from the CGST Act,2017 are available for your ready reference. Section 67 :Power of inspection, search and seizure Section 68 :Inspection of goods in movement Section 69 :Power to arrest Section 70 :Power tosummonpersons togive evidenceand producedocuments Section 71 :Access to business premises Section 72 :Officers to assist proper officers