TIOL-DDT 2781
08 02 2016
Monday

VIDE CBEC Instruction in F. No.390/Misc./163/2010-JC., Dated: December 17 2015 new monetary limits were prescribed for filing of appeals by the department before the CESTAT& the High Court.An increase was made of Rupees Five lakhs from the earlier existing Rs.5 lakhs and Rs.10 lakhs for filing appeals before the CESTAT and High Court respectively.

DDT 2748 18 12 2015  commented, The Board has not clarified whether these instructions are applicable for pending cases, as done by CBDT.This issue by itself could generate further litigation. Without waiting for litigation to mount, CBEC should clarify that the limits apply to pending litigation also. Please don't create litigation on litigation.

CBDT has directed that   Pending appeals below the specified tax limits may be withdrawn/not pressed. Based on the CBDT instruction dated 10.12.2015, the ITAT, Ahmedabad passed an order on 15.12.2015 dismissing 251 Revenue Appeals in one stroke on the single ground that the tax effect in each of the appeals was less than 10 lakh rupees. CBEC and CESTAT should follow the example set by CBDT and ITAT.

In DDT 2758 while reporting CBEC Letter in F.No.390/Misc./163/2010-JC., Dated January 01 2016, we mentioned -

DDT is happy to report that CBEC has reacted positively and clarified that the instructions issued on 17.12.2015 will apply to all pending appeals in High Courts/ CESTAT.

Board further directs, "Principal Chief Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners are required to take immediate necessary action in this regard for cases which are below the new threshold limits subject to the conditions of the instructions of even no. dated 17.08.2011 and 17.12.2015".

An action taken report was also sought by the Board under F.No.390/Misc./163/2010-JC dated January 21, 2016.

Now, the Board wants all the Principal Commissioners/ Chief Commissioners to send a copy of each application filed for withdrawal of such appeal before CESTAT to the Chief Commissioner (AR), CESTAT.

Obviously, AR is the one who has to be in the know of these developments in the first place.

It would also be nice on the part of the Board to inform all the assessees concerned the appeals which have been withdrawn by the Department rather than parting with this information only after an RTI application is filed! The Commissionerate and the CESTAT website could explore the idea of carrying a link giving all the details of such 'withdrawal applications' and thereby contribute their might towards 'ease of doing business'.

CBEC letter F.No.390/Misc./163/2010-JC dated February 4, 2016

Developing Country - List of countries revised

SECTION 8B of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 empowers the Central Government to impose safeguard duty. The first proviso to section 8B(1) reads -

Provided that no such duty shall be imposed on an article originating from a developing country so long as the share of imports of that article from that country does not exceed three per cent or where the article is originating from more than one developing countries, then, so long as the aggregate of the imports from developing countries each with less than three per cent. import share taken together does not exceed nine percent of the total imports of that article into India.

The term "developing country" is defined in section 8B(6) as below -

(a) "developing country" means a country notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette for the purposes of this section;

By notification 103/98-Cus dated 14.12.1998 as amended by notification 62/99-Cus., dated 13-5-1999, 135 countries were notified to fall within the ambit of the term "developing country".

This notification has been superseded after more than 17 years.

The new notification now contains a list of 132 countries. Nineteen new countries have been added to the earlier list of "developing country" and twenty-two from the earlier list have been stripped of the tag of "developing country". Prominent among them - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia lose their privileged status and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan are now within the fold.

Acche din for them!

Customs Notification 19/2016-Cus(NT) dated February 5, 2016.

Goods imported for display in Exhibition etc

ANOTHER notification, aged 27 years, has bitten the dust. Notification 3/89-Cus dated January 9, 1989 exempted the goods imported for display / demonstration in a trade / industrial fair / exhibition etc. Obviously, 'procedural' notifications like this one could not have survived for so long but it is a miracle that it did with the last minimalist amendment in December 1999. Perhaps, the Government felt that the time is ripe to replace it with a notification that is all-encompassing, more peppy, forward looking, and easy to follow. The new notification enlarges the scope and relaxes some conditions when an importer gets the goods for the purposes notified.

Did the Auto Expo 2016 have a role to play?

Customs Notification 8/2016-Cus. dated February 5, 2016

Minimum Import Price on Iron & Steel

THE Central government has introduced Minimum Import Price (MIP) against 173 HS Codes under Chapter 72 of ITC (HS), 2012. This measure is purportedly to support the domestic industry.

DGFT Notification 38/2015-2020, dated February 5, 2016

Anubhav, nothing as of now

BHAGAVAN Srikrishna said in  Bhagavad Gita, "anubhav adhara jeevitham"  - "life is a series of experiences.

Quite possibly, this is what prompted the Revenue Boards to come out with letters CBEC F. No.C-50/50/2015-Ad.II., Dated: March 20, 2015 and CBDT F. No.Dir(Hqrs)/Ch(DT)/25(04)/2015/297., Dated: March 19, 2015 requesting retiring employees to share their experiences - commendable work done during service. This was to provide satisfaction to the retiring employees and motivation for serving employees. The Government also wanted to use this opportunity to garner the resources of retiring employees for voluntary contribution to nation building post retirement. See DDT 2566.

Novel idea, but unfortunately no takers.

Almost a year into its launch, the CBE&C website does not carry any "Anubhav" and the message being displayed is -

It's not that no one retired after March 2015 but perhaps none found the idea attractive enough to pen their experiences!

But do read, what Jai Narain, the dakiya had to say in DDT 2569.

Website hacked

IT was reported yesterday that suspected hackers from our neighboring country have brought down the website http://www.irsofficersonline.gov.in. Obviously, the hackers might not have got access to any "vital" details except of course, the history of posting etc. which, in any case, should do no much damage.

An IRS officer purportedly told the press - "Thankfully, the website does not have information that can compromise national security."

Since this happened on a weekend, it will naturally take time to get it up and running, after the officers return to work today.

As of now, the website proudly shows the following message -

Hopefully, the email ids the officers use for official communication is the one provided by NIC, else we may have a larger issue on our hands!

Rolling off white goods - Budget suggestion

JAGDISH PILLAI from Thane has the following interesting suggestion to offer for the Union Budget -

"With reference to the proposal of reducing the Excise Duty to 50% for Cars and Trucks from the Ministry of Transport to the Finance Minister, I would like to suggest that any product that sticks on with the population for more than 15 years should also be covered, for example products like the Refrigerators, Television sets stick on with the population for more than 15 years, the citizens should have the choice of constantly rolling off old products without greatly hurting their finances. There will be a shortfall of revenue with exchequer but it will definitely help the manufacturers getting a steady demand for their products from the citizens and will also help the more people to be employed. There will be no ups and downs of business cycle to a considerable extant.

I hope this will be implemented in the coming budget 2016-17."

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice day.

Mail your comments to vijaywrite@tiol.in