Welcome Initiative by SIRC- Compulsory Audit of Accounts under TN VAT

To ensure effective compliance with VAT laws by dealers, the State government will consider introducing a provision for compulsory audit of accounts of an assessee under VAT by chartered accountants, Commercial Tax Minister S.N.M. Ubayadullah said on Thursday.

At the concluding session of ‘Refresher course on Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax’ organised by the Southern India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Mr. Ubayadullah said he was in favour of introducing compulsory VAT, as some dealers claimed huge sums in refunds through fraudulent transactions. “I am in favour of it, but I don’t know about my officials. I will talk to them to ensure that steps are taken to implement it.” Tamil Nadu lost the first-mover advantage in implementing the VAT compared with other States, Mr. Ubayadullah said. The VAT implementation did not cause harm to the public or traders, and in the first year, the collection grew by 20 per cent over the previous year. In the first two months of this fiscal, the growth was 17.5 per cent.

P. Rajendra Kumar, chairman, Southern India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, said the institute was ready to conduct a refresher course in VAT for all government officers to enable them to read balance-sheets without the help of chartered accountants. In his response, the Minister said: “If we have to compete with others in the globalised world, we have to keep pace with the changing technology. Tamil Nadu is at the forefront, and the starting of the refresher course is a pointer to it.”

Proper books

Mr. Kumar said the aim of audit under VAT was to ensure that dealers maintained proper books of account and other records to reflect the true liability under VAT.

Click here for more details