The board is currently working on nine excise projects related to audit, developed in association with Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The officials discussed the feasibility of starting first two projects on the basis of audit manual and audit programme developed in association with CIDA from November in about 60 commissionerates all over the country.Chairman CBEC, SD Mohile told The Financial Express that chief commissioners agreed on starting the projects from November 1.

A work schedule for another CIDA project, computer assisted audit programme (CAAP) was also discussed at the meeting.

The implementation of CAAP, scheduled for April 2000, requires a change in audit laws for making submission ofinformation in the electronic mode, mandatory for the assessees.

Mohile pointed out that the new audit exercise would be done on a selective basis. "It will be more consumer-friendly for the honest assessees," he added.

The board decided to initiate the first two CIDA projects in November as it wants to provide its officers with opportunity to `learn on job', he said.

The senior CBEC officials stressed in the meeting that there was an urgent need to keep the industry informed about the new developments.

RK Chakrabarti, director general (Anti-evasion) of central excise said that the board would be in touch with the industry to remove fears about the new audit system.

He said that the board has already prepared an information booklet on the features of the audit system to be distributed among the assessees.

Chakrabarti said that the new audit projects developed in association with CIDA were a beautiful blend of Canadian and Indian knowledge.

The CBEC will prepare an action plan on the basis ofSaturday's discussion for implementation and monitoring of the two projects to be implemented in November.

It was suggested in the meeting that till a full-fledged DG(Audit) comes into operation, an audit board can function in each commissionerate to oversee the quality of audit.