Section 67 – Power of inspection, search and seizure of CGST ACT, 2017<\/p>\n
67. (1) Where the proper officer, not below the rank of Joint Commissioner, has reasons
\nto believe that\u2013\u2013
\n(a) a taxable person has suppressed any transaction relating to supply of goods
\nor services or both or the stock of goods in hand, or has claimed input tax credit in
\nexcess of his entitlement under this Act or has indulged in contravention of any of the
\nprovisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder to evade tax under this Act; or
\n(b) any person engaged in the business of transporting goods or an owner or
\noperator of a warehouse or a godown or any other place is keeping goods which have
\nescaped payment of tax or has kept his accounts or goods in such a manner as is likely
\nto cause evasion of tax payable under this Act,
\nhe may authorise in writing any other officer of central tax to inspect any places of business
\nof the taxable person or the persons engaged in the business of transporting goods or the
\nowner or the operator of warehouse or godown or any other place.
\n(2) Where the proper officer, not below the rank of Joint Commissioner, either pursuant
\nto an inspection carried out under sub-section (1) or otherwise, has reasons to believe that
\nany goods liable to confiscation or any documents or books or things, which in his opinion
\nshall be useful for or relevant to any proceedings under this Act, are secreted in any place, he
\nmay authorise in writing any other officer of central tax to search and seize or may himself
\nsearch and seize such goods, documents or books or things:
\nProvided that where it is not practicable to seize any such goods, the proper officer, or
\nany officer authorised by him, may serve on the owner or the custodian of the goods an order
\nthat he shall not remove, part with, or otherwise deal with the goods except with the previous
\npermission of such officer:
\nProvided further that the documents or books or things so seized shall be retained by
\nsuch officer only for so long as may be necessary for their examination and for any inquiry or
\nproceedings under this Act.
\n(3) The documents, books or things referred to in sub-section (2) or any other
\ndocuments, books or things produced by a taxable person or any other person, which have
\nnot been relied upon for the issue of notice under this Act or the rules made thereunder, shall
\nbe returned to such person within a period not exceeding thirty days of the issue of the said
\nnotice.
\n(4) The officer authorised under sub-section (2) shall have the power to seal or break
\nopen the door of any premises or to break open any almirah, electronic devices, box, receptacle
\nin which any goods, accounts, registers or documents of the person are suspected to be
\nconcealed, where access to such premises, almirah, electronic devices, box or receptacle is
\ndenied.
\n(5) The person from whose custody any documents are seized under sub-section (2)
\nshall be entitled to make copies thereof or take extracts therefrom in the presence of anauthorised officer at such place and time as such officer may indicate in this behalf except
\nwhere making such copies or taking such extracts may, in the opinion of the proper officer,
\nprejudicially affect the investigation.
\n(6) The goods so seized under sub-section (2) shall be released, on a provisional
\nbasis, upon execution of a bond and furnishing of a security, in such manner and of such
\nquantum, respectively, as may be prescribed or on payment of applicable tax, interest and
\npenalty payable, as the case may be.
\n(7) Where any goods are seized under sub-section (2) and no notice in respect thereof
\nis given within six months of the seizure of the goods, the goods shall be returned to the
\nperson from whose possession they were seized:
\nProvided that the period of six months may, on sufficient cause being shown, be
\nextended by the proper officer for a further period not exceeding six months.
\n(8) The Government may, having regard to the perishable or hazardous nature of any
\ngoods, depreciation in the value of the goods with the passage of time, constraints of
\nstorage space for the goods or any other relevant considerations, by notification, specify
\nthe goods or class of goods which shall, as soon as may be after its seizure under
\nsub-section (2), be disposed of by the proper officer in such manner as may be prescribed.
\n(9) Where any goods, being goods specified under sub-section (8), have been seized
\nby a proper officer, or any officer authorised by him under sub-section (2), he shall prepare
\nan inventory of such goods in such manner as may be prescribed.
\n(10) The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, relating to search and
\nseizure, shall, so far as may be, apply to search and seizure under this section subject to the
\nmodification that sub-section (5) of section 165 of the said Code shall have effect as if for the
\nword \u201cMagistrate\u201d, wherever it occurs, the word \u201cCommissioner\u201d were substituted.
\n(11) Where the proper officer has reasons to believe that any person has evaded or is
\nattempting to evade the payment of any tax, he may, for reasons to be recorded in writing,
\nseize the accounts, registers or documents of such person produced before him and shall
\ngrant a receipt for the same, and shall retain the same for so long as may be necessary in
\nconnection with any proceedings under this Act or the rules made thereunder for prosecution.
\n(12) The Commissioner or an officer authorised by him may cause purchase of any
\ngoods or services or both by any person authorised by him from the business premises of
\nany taxable person, to check the issue of tax invoices or bills of supply by such taxable
\nperson, and on return of goods so purchased by such officer, such taxable person or any
\nperson in charge of the business premises shall refund the amount so paid towards the
\ngoods after cancelling any tax invoice or bill of supply issued earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Section 67 – Power of inspection, search and seizure of CGST ACT, 2017 67. (1) Where the proper officer, not below the rank of Joint Commissioner, has reasons to believe that\u2013\u2013 (a) a taxable person has suppressed any transaction relating to supply of goods or services or both or the stock of goods in hand, … Continue reading “Section 67 – Power of inspection, search and seizure of CGST ACT, 2017”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/khannaandassociates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}