Audit by Officers of Central Excise

Doubts have been raised in certain quarters regarding powers of a Central Excise officer to conduct audit, in the background of a recent judgment of Hon'ble High Court of Delhi dated 04.08.2014 in case of M/s Travelite (India) [2014- TIOL-1304-HC-DEL-ST] wherein the Hon'ble court has held that the powers to conduct audit as envisaged in Rule 5A (2) of the Service Tax Rules, 1994, does not have appropriate statutory backing and therefore quashed the rule. It may be noted that the judgment did not deal with the issue of audit in Central Excise. It is further clarified that in Central Excise there is adequate statutory backing for audit by the Central Excise Officers. The statutory provisions relevant for audit is clause (x) of Section 37(2) and Rule 22 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002.