12 10 2015
Monday
THE Gazette of India was a sacred document almost with the status of the scriptures. A Law was a Law only when it was printed in the gazette and there is a class of Government servants known as Gazetted Officers. There was a time when gazetted officers would sign only in green ink! (Please also see THE GREEN INK CONTROVERSY - DDT 7 09 12 2004)
Department of Publication of the Government of India was established in April, 1924 by the Imperial Government and the office was located in Kolkata.The Primary aim was to disseminate Government information to to the general public. Initially, this function was limited to Government's Reports only. Over the years, the horizons were widened covering sale and distribution of books and periodicals, and the office was shifted in the year 1932-33 to Delhi. The Department of Publication attained its separate identity, in the year 1973, under the name and status of Department of Publication. It is a separate subordinate Department of the Union Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India.
The Department has the distinction of publishing over 63500 titles and there are live 62500 titles available in circulation. On an average, 360 titles are published every month and simultaneously, 10 titles go out for weeding out and the dispatch work on an average is 5500 packets for over 50000 books every month.
Gazette Notifications of all kinds are published and copies of Gazettes are sold by this Department.Old Gazettes documents which are required for support in the Courts of Law for ready reference are duly certified and sold by this Department. Gazette Notices for change of name, adoption of child, lost / destroyed / stolen are published and sold by this Department.
Gazette of India Notifications are published by this department and are printed from the Government of India Printing Presses regularly. This is an authorised legal document of Government of India.
Now this is history - all the printing and waste of huge mountains of paper are stopped.
It has been decided in consultation with Department of Legal Affairs to switch over to exclusive e-publishing of the Government of India Gazette Notification on its official website with effect from 01.10.2015 and to do away with the physical printing of Gazette Notification. The date of publishing shall be the date of e-publication on official website by way of electronic gazette in respect of Gazette Notifications. The Gazette Notification can be accessed and downloaded/printed from the official e-Gazette website i.e. www.egazette.nic.in free of cost .
Ministry of Urban Development Office Memorandum No. 0-17022/1/2015-PSP-l., Dated: September 30, 2015
Exports - Rebate - Duty Paid on both inputs and final products are entitled for rebate - "OR" means "AND" - Supreme Court
MORE than nine years ago while reporting a High Court judgement, DDT commented,
In a major blow to the exporters, the Bombay High Court has held that exporters are eligible for rebate on the duty paid either on the inputs or the final products but not both. The court was interpreting Rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002:-
Where any goods are exported, the Central Government may, by notification, grant rebate of duty paid on such excisable goods OR duty paid on materials used in the manufacture or processing of such goods.
Because of the word, "or" in the rule, the High Court held that only one of the benefits could be allowed. This is the result of benevolent simplification to make the assessee's life simpler! As long as the Central Excise Rules, 1944 ruled the roost, there was no problem, and simplification has taken away another benefit. Is it fair on the part of the government to take the matter to the High Court when they knew all along that rebate was and should be allowed on both the items? Should the assessees suffer for the deficiency in English of the officers in the Board? First the government makes a bad law because of a mistake, because somebody's English grammar was poor and then they go to Court to get benefit out of the badly drafted law! Certainly not an act worthy of a government! (DDT 387 19 06 2006)
DDT 1354 07.05.2010 asked, "If duty paid on inputs used in manufacture of goods cleared for export could be availed as CENVAT credit and at the same time the duty paid on such goods cleared for export (even utilizing CENVAT A/c) could be claimed as rebate under Rule 18, what is the harm if both the rebates i.e. input stage rebate and rebate of duty paid on finished goods cleared for export are claimed simultaneously"
Now, the Supreme Court has held that an exporter is eligible for rebate of the duty paid on final products exported as well as the duty paid on the materials used in the manufacture of the final products.
And the Supreme Court held that in this case, the OR should be read as AND.
The Supreme Court observed that these two words normally 'or' and 'and' are to be given their literal meaning in unless some other part of same Statute or the clear intention of it requires that to be done. However, wherever use of such a word, viz., 'and'/'or' produces unintelligible or absurd results, the Court has power to read the word 'or' as 'and' and vice-versa to give effect to the intention of the Legislature which is otherwise quite clear.
The Supreme Court concluded that the only inevitable consequence is this : the word 'OR' occurring in Rule 18 cannot be given literal interpretation as that leads to various disastrous results pointed out in the preceding discussion and, therefore, this word has to be read as 'and' as that is what was intended by the rule maker in the scheme of things and to carry out the objectives of the Rule 18 and also to bring it at par with Rule 19.
Just because some babu in North Block did not know the difference between ‘OR' and ‘AND', and the Board's audacity in taking advantage of the mistake, several exporters were denied the benefit of rebate and only the few exporters who could fight this battle till the Supreme Court got their due benefits.
This is what they perhaps understand by "err on the side of revenue". Every Revenue officer is taught by his seniors to "err on the side of revenue". That way nothing happens to them and the government can merrily collect more revenue for every mistake that the revenue officer makes. It is only government that can make a mistake and then claim fiscal benefit out of that mistake. They deserve a huge raise - they should have told the 7th Pay Commission that they earn revenue even by their careless mistakes and poor understanding of English. There should be a special allowance (preferably tax free) for drafting defective laws.
We bring you the Supreme Court today.
Please see Breaking News
FTP - Import of Aircraft and Helicopters -DGFT Amends Policy
AS per Policy Condition 1 of Chapter 88 of ITC (HS), 2012 - Schedule - 1 (Import Policy);Aircraft and Helicopters (including used/second hand aircraft and helicopters) may be imported by the following without the need to obtain an import licence from the Directorate.
(a) Air India
(b) Indian Airlines
(c) Vayudoot Limited
(d) Pawan Hans Limited
(e) National Airports Authority
(f) International Airports Authority of India
(g) Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academi (IGRUA)/and such other flying clubs/ Academies recognised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India
(h) Any person who has been granted permission by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, for operating scheduled or non-scheduled air transport services (including air taxi services) for import of aircraft or helicopters, subject to the condition that the import of the aircraft or helicopter and their use is in accordance with that permission.
(i) The Aero Club of India.
Now this is amended to read as:
Aircraft and Helicopters (including used/second hand aircraft and helicopters) may be imported by the following without the need to obtain an import licence from Directorate General of Foreign Trade.
(a) Air India
(b) Pawan Hans Limited
(c) Airport Authority of India
(d) Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academi (IGRUA) and such other flying clubs/ Academies recognised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India
(e) Any person who has been granted permission by Director General of Civil Aviation, for operating Scheduled or Non-Scheduled Air Transport Services (including Air Taxi Services) for import of aircraft / helicopter subject to the condition that the import of the aircraft or helicopter and their use is in accordance with that permission.
DGFT Notification No.24/2015-2020., Dated: October 09, 2015
Declaration of Assets and Liabilities by Babus - Last Date Extended
THE Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Amendment Rules, 2014, extended the time limit for filing of revised returns by all public servants from 15th October 2015 to 15th April 2016.
Obviously many government servants have not taken this seriously and have not filed their property returns.
This is the fourth extension. With all these extensions, it seems that the Government is certainly not that serious about knowing the assets & liabilities of the babus.
Strangely this O.M was issued yesterday, a Sunday!
DoPT Office Memorandum No. 407/12/2014-AVD-IV(B)., Dated October 11, 2015
Shipping Co Director Arrested by Service Tax
SHIPPING News Worldwide, an online newspaper on international shipping reported that the Director of Kei Rsos Maritime Ltd, was arrested by officials of Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence. Kei Rsos Maritime with its headquarters at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh is engaged in ship chartering and port services. DGCEI in a Press Release said that verification revealed the company evaded payment of service tax involving more than Rs 8 crore. The company used the money, which should have gone to the Government, for their own purpose, it said.
The arrested Director was remanded to judicial custody till 20th October 2015.
Income Tax Act Unwitty?
REVENUE Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said at a Round Table on Tax Reforms at Ahmedabad on Friday, Unfortunately the Income Tax Act which was written many years ago has undergone so many aberrations, so many changes, that it has become unwitty and complex, we need to undertake the wholesale job of removing such things and this is the right time to do it.
Until Tomorrow with more DDT
Have a nice day.
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