Section 22 in The Gujarat Entertainments Tax Act, 1977
22. Production and inspection of accounts and documents and search of premises.
(1)The prescribed officer, may require any proprietor to produce before him any account or documents relating to the entertainment conducted by him or to furnish any information relating to payments for admission, complimentary tickets, or any other matters relating to such entertainment, as may be necessary for the purposes of this Act.(2)All accounts and documents of the nature referred to in sub-section (1), as well as documents containing information relating to the entertainment conducted by a proprietor shall at all reasonable times be open to inspection by the prescribed officer and, the prescribed officer may take or cause to be taken such copies or extracts therefrom or may place or cause to be placed such marks of identification thereon, as appears to him to be necessary for the purposes of this Act.(3)The prescribed officer may, for the purposes of this Act, impound and retain in his custody for such period as he considers necessary any accounts or other documents produced before him in any proceeding under this Act.(4)If the prescribed officer has reason to believe that any proprietor has evaded, or is attempting to evade the payment of any tax due from him, he may, for reasons to be recorded in writing seize such accounts or documents of the proprietor as may be necessary, and shall grant receipt for the same and shall retain the same for so long as may be necessary, in connection with any proceeding under this Act.(5)For the purposes of sub-section (2) or sub-section (4) the prescribed officer may enter and search any place of business of any proprietor or any other place where the prescribed officer has reason to believe that the proprietor keeps or is for the time being keeping any accounts, or documents relating to the entertainment conducted by him, and may make a note or an inventory of any articles or things found in the course of any search which in his opinion will be useful for or relevant, to, any proceeding under this Act.(6)The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), relating to searches shall, so far as may be, apply to a search made under sub-section (5).
