TIOL-DDT 2885
11 07 2016
Monday

IN exercise of the powers conferred by clause (ii) of sub-section (2) of Section 61 of the Customs Act, the CBEC has rescinded Notification No. 18/2003-Customs, dated 1st March 2003.

Section 61(2) as amended by Finance Act 2016 reads as:

Where any warehoused goods specified in clause (c) of sub-section (1) remain in a warehouse beyond a period of ninety days from the date on which the proper officer has made an order under sub-section (1) of section 60, interest shall be payable at such rate as may be fixed by the Central Government under section 47, on the amount of duty payable at the time of clearance of the goods, for the period from the expiry of the said ninety days till the date of payment of duty on the warehoused goods :

So, this Section fixes the interest rate for warehoused goods as the rate fixed under Section 47 which is 15% vide Notification No. 28/2002-Cus(NT), dated 13.05.2002.

Notification No. 18/2003-Cus, dated 01.03.2003 which the CBEC has now rescinded, relates to the amendment to the Customs Tariff and has nothing to do with the rate of interest for warehoused goods.

What the Board wanted to rescind was obviously Notification No. 18/2003-Cus(NT), dated 01.03.2003. That is instead of rescinding a Non Tariff Notification, they rescinded a Tariff Notification. They just forgot to put NT in that notification, but this small slip is a major blunder. I am sure they will silently add that NT in the Notification and replace the notification in their website making all those who downloaded the notification earlier from their website look silly, foolish and wrong. But that is how the Board usually corrects its unpardonable blunders. Rarely do they allow assessees to correct their mistakes.

Notification No. 98/2016-CUSTOMS., Dated: July 08, 2016

CBEC Taxpayer's Experience Survey -Chairman's Concern

CBEC has for the second year running, conducted a taxpayer's experience survey in association with FICCI and KPMG and the findings have been partly and selectively released, especially the fact that 72% of the respondents have felt a perceptible change in policies of the Tax Department by way of becoming liberal and friendly to the taxpayer. While congratulating the officers of the Department, the CBEC Chairman in a D.O. Letter to all his Chief Commissioners says, "We cannot, however, afford to sit on our laurels."

The Chairman shared some preliminary concerns with his officers.

1. A constant refrain has been the need for attitudinal change by us at the cutting edge level in treating the taxpayer. Taxpayers are our partners and need to be treated as such.

2. The survey points out also on the need for focusing on tax evaders - it is nobody's case that this segment of taxpayers who give everybody a bad name, should be treated softly.

3. Training is an extremely important element in this entire aspect. While NACEN and its regional units will be tasked to hold regular training sessions obviously each Commissionerate should also have in house training workshops. We have a lot of talent amongst our officers which should be made use of for imparting such trainings. This is particularly important, given that one of the findings of the survey was that the spate of reforms initiated by the CBEC through various instructions/circulars does not seem to have reached the field formations.

4. As was brought out by a panel list in the recently held Rajaswa Gyan Sangam, 2016, we should strive to be knowledgeable, professional and helpful.

5. It is also incumbent on each one of us to ensure close supervision and monitoring. Timely disposal of adjudication, refund and queries of the trade is essential in creating a conducive environment.

6. I would also urge you to ensure regular interaction with the trade and the officers and have a feedback mechanism whereby suggestions for ease of doing business should be encouraged.

The Survey - Some Findings

KEY Concerns in the Previous Survey:

-  Taxpayers treated like tax-evaders

-  Revenue biased approach

-  Lack of clarity on tax issues

-  Significant delay in grant of refund claims and rejection of refund claim on trivial grounds

-  Unwarranted litigation

- Persistent delay in responding to queries / concerns of taxpayers

-  Need for continuous follow-up for any response or action

-  Lack of customer service approach

-  Huge burden of manual / physical documentation

-  Intermittent transfer of officers without proper handover / takeover arrangements

- Lack of transparency and undue expectations by field formations

-  Introduce fair and transparent quasi-judicial adjudication process

-  Create environment for officers to take independent decisions

-  Expedite dispute resolution

-  Clarify stand of revenue on contentious issues upfront

-  Timely finalisation of provisionally assessed bills of entries and processing of refund claims

-  SAD refund - Requirement of filing original sales invoices should be withdrawn / relaxed

-  Easy process of cancellation of bonds / undertaking etc. submitted at the time of import

-  Remove requirement for producing original purchase invoice at the time of de-bonding of assets

-  Consequential refund arising out of favourable appellate orders should be suo-moto processed

-  Broad base CENVAT credit mechanism and allow credit for all input services

Some Suggestions in the 2016 Survey:

•  Change in overall approach of CBEC is not visible at the lower level staff

•  Discontinue the practice to visit business premises for collecting information

•  Automatic escalation of pending/overdue matters to Commissioner/Chief Commissioner

•  Authorities should be made accountable for delay in responding to taxpayers' requests

•  Expedite transfer of files in case of change in jurisdiction

•  Quality of interactions at the field formation level needs to improve

•  Periodical training of personnel on behavioral, technical knowledge and technology aspects

•  Need to improve infrastructure of tax offices

•  Display sensitivity and urgency towards business needs

Chief Commissioner's Directives

CHIEF Commissioner of Customs, Mumbai held a meeting with his Group A officers (AC and above) on 21st June 2016. He exhorted the officers to be sensible, responsive, transparent and receptive towards their sphere of work. His major directions:

1. Punctuality is a virtue which we could not forego. The trade should not have any difficulty in getting their work done merely for the reason that some officer was not available in office well within time. All the officers should reach in time and late coming needs to be avoided. The concerned DC/ACs should also ensure that their supporting staff also reach in time to the office so that there is no delay in the clearance and the trade does not suffer. Even if the officer is late on the previous day owing to some occupation, it should not be taken as ruse to come late.

2. Officers should not raise frivolous and repeated queries. The queries should be specific and justify the need of raising such queries since such queries unnecessarily raise the dwell time and create inconvenience to the trade. The documents should be thoroughly checked at the first instance and repeated queries should not be raised.

3. All attempts should be made to fasten the clearance of goods while saving the interests of Revenue and there should not be delay in the clearance of the goods.

4. There should not be fear of taxman but fear of law.

5. The image of the department which has been tarnished of late, due to bad reporting has to be revived with better reports and all the officers should thrive to improve the image of the Department with sincere and dedicated work. The DC/ACs should also ensure that the message is passed on to their subordinate staff as well to ensure better probity.

6. Dwell time should be reduced. Law and probity should be strictly adhered to.

7. We should always act as pioneer in the best practices all across the nation and set examples for others to be followed.

8. The DRI/CIU/SIIB/CSD alerts should be attended on top priority. If any alerts regarding containers on hold is received the same should be attended to immediately and such containers should be traced immediately and the concerned agencies to be informed accordingly on urgent basis.

9. Document Management System needs immediate attention as complaints are being received in this office that the documents are not being forwarded regularly from the CFSs. All DC/ACs should ensure that the dockets of the Bills of Entry are forwarded to the concerned section immediately for necessary action.

10. Longstanding and unclaimed/uncleared containers must be identified and list of all such containers should be forwarded to the Disposal Section for further necessary action.

11. The DC/ACs should ensure 100% commitment and truthfulness to the Department and it should be ensured that their subordinate staff follow the same. We should strive to continue to be meaningful and relevant in our areas of work.

12. All areas of work such as Adjudication, Audit, PCA, Revenue Recovery should be accorded due priority and all targets assigned to this zone should be met with.

13. Entry of un-authorised persons inside the officers' cabin should be restricted. Officers should be vigilant and restrict the un-authorised persons entry inside CFSs and also inside the officers cabins.

But aren't these things which the officers are employed and paid for, without the Chief Commissioner exhorting them. Should senior officers be exhorted to come to office punctually?

JNCH Chief Commissioner F.No. S/V-30-Misc-210/2016 CCO-M-II., Dated July 01 2016

New President of CESTAT - When can he join?

THE Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the proposal for appointment of Justice (Dr.) Satish Chandra, former Judge of the Allahabad High Court to the post of President in Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) w.e.f. the date of assumption of charge of the post for a period of 03 years, or till he attains the age of 65 years, or until further orders, whichever is the earliest.

Justice Dr. Satish Chandraan LL.M and LL.D, is a judge with high academic credentials. He worked as a Member of the ITAT for 11 years before becoming a judge of the Allahabad High Court where he worked for about seven years.

But there is a twist in the appointment. He is already the Chairman of the 3 rd Pay Revision Committee for the Central Public Sector Enterprises, having been appointed just a month ago. This Committee is to give its report to the Government by December 2016. Can the new president join CESTAT before December?

I called up the Hon'ble Justice to congratulate him. He said he didn't have any official information about the appointment and came to know about it from our flash only. So, I couldn't embarrass him with any question about his new job. The Revenue Department is to issue the appointment offer soon.

DoPT F.No.18/27/2016-EO(SM.II)., Dated: July 08, 2016

Pre Show Cause Notice Consultation

IN the instruction issued vide F No 1080/09/DLA/MISC/15 dated 21st December 2015, CBEC stated, Pre show cause notice consultation with the Principal Commissioners and Commissioners is being made mandatory prior to issue of SCN in the case of demands of duty above Rs. 50 Lakhs (except for preventive/offence related SCNs).

Certain doubts have been expressed with regard to this. Board clarifies that the pre show cause notices consultation shall be done by the adjudicating authority with the assessee concerned. This is a step towards trade facilitation and promoting voluntary compliance and also to reduce the necessity of issuing show cause notice.

CBEC Instruction in F No 1080/11/DLA/CC Conference/2016/1208., Dated: July 08, 2016

GST - The Revenue Road Show

TO sensitize the trade, industry and commerce the CBEC has undertaken Nation Wide interactions and this series is scheduled to commence from Hyderabad today.

Mr. B.N. Sharma, Additional Secretary, Dept. of Revenue, Govt. of India and Mr. Ram Tirath, Member - Budget/GST, CBEC are to interact with trade and industry along with the Director General Systems and Director General GST, CBEC besides the officials of the Govt. of Telangana today at FTAPCCI, Hyderabad.

Revenue Boom

THE Indirect Taxes Revenue for the first quarter of 2016-17 has seen a phenomenal hike in Revenue Collection with a 30.8% growth. Central Excise sees a rise of 50.1%. The total Indirect Taxes Revenue is nearly Rs. 2 lakh crores.

The direct tax collections upto June, 2016 indicate net revenue collection of Rs.1.24 lakh crore which is a growth of 24.79% over the corresponding period last year.

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice Day.

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