Audit of selected dealers.

54. (1) The audit shall be performed by auditing authority as a team which may consist of one or more Sales Tax Officer, Assistant Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, as the Commissioner may deem fit.

(2) The audit team as referred to in sub-rule(1) may be of the following types:

(a) Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, and Sales Tax Officer with Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax as its head ( hereinafter referred to as the "team head");

(b) Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, and Sales Tax Officer with Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax as its head (hereinafter referred to as the "team head").

(3) The members of the team as referred to in sub-rule (2), may, wherever necessary, take the assistance of the Assistant Sales Tax Officer for making cross verification of documents like tax invoice, invoices, cash memo, bills or way bills.

(4) Where a registered dealer is selected for audit under sub-rule (3) of rule 52 and task of audit is entrusted to team of officers by the administrative Deputy Commissioner, the team head shall issue a notice in Form No. 21 to such dealer asking him to produce the books of accounts, registers and relevant documents including those in the form of electronic records, as may be specified, before him on the date and time specified in the said notice not earlier than fifteen working days from the date of issue of such notice:

Provided that if the dealer fails to comply with the requirement of the notice, the audit authority will refer the same to the appropriate assessing authority who will assess the dealer under sub-section (1) of section 46.

(5) Before commencement of audit certain information in Form No. 22 shall be furnished by the manufacturers whilst dealers, other than manufacturers, shall give th information in Form No. 23.

(6) On completion of audit, the audit team will send a copy of the audit report to the concerned dealer, the assessing officer of the dealer concerned and to the Commissioner.

(7) The assessing officer on receipt of the audit report shall see whether there is any adverse finding in the report and if there is any, he shall take action under clause (c) of sub-section (1) of section 46.