These companies pay excise duty of over Rs 12,000 crore per annum.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has recently approved the scheme which seeks to improve interface between the department and the leading corporates.

The audit protocol will determine a general framework to be followed in the course of the department's audits of the companies. The idea is to increase the understanding between the companies and the department and treat them as special cases during the excise audits as a reward for their compliance.

The scheme is also expected to settle some of the pending excise disputes between the corporates and the department.

Top revenue officials told The Financial Express that the protocol will be signed by the head of the factory ofthe companies and a revenue official of the rank of a joint director. The period of the protocol will be of either three or five years, depending on the case and will be decided jointly with the company.

Officials said after assessing the results of this unique partnership with the eight companies, the protocol will be extended to other major excise contributors.

During the audit, the companies will be persuaded to pay whatever amount of excise duty the company accepts is due to the department. The audit team will also take an indication from the companies as to when the due amount will be paid by the company.

However, there will be no harassment during the conduct of the audit. The scheme is basically a relationship building exercise with top excise contributors and seeks to make the audit system less invasive, the officials added.

Officials said for the audit scheme only trained officials will be sent to the companies accompanied by an officer of the rank of an assistant director (cost accountancy).The team will be headed by an excise official of the rank of an assistant commissioner. The department has already initiated several training programmes to educate the officers.

The audit protocol scheme is one of the steps taken by the revenue department to improve the constant interface between the revenue officials and the companies. The government had, from June 1, introduced a system where private records of an assessee, who contributes Rs 5 crore of excise duty (PLA) or more in a year, will be accepted in lieu of the statutory excise records.