TIOL-DDT 1218
19.10.2009
Monday

A Central Excise officer has sent us this info on the situation in a Central Excise Bhavan.

Some years ago, Central Excise offices of a Commissionerate were situated in different rented buildings of a city. These buildings were old and not having enough space and facilities. Then a new own building of Central Excise department became ready and all offices, i.e. HQ, Divisions and Ranges, of a Commissionerate were shifted into the new Central Excise Bhavan. Indeed it is very convenient to staff and trade. The new seven storied building is situated in a good locality and having enough space and facilities like lift, canteen and parking for vehicles.

CONTROL ROOM

There is a Control Room situated on the ground floor. On one side facing entry towards the building, there is a window of the Control Room with the board “Reception”. Whereas, on another wall inside the building, there is a board “Control Room”. The Inspector posted in Control Room has to perform both duties, i.e. as a Receptionist and as a Control Room officer! There is round the clock posting of Inspectors in Control Room. Around One lakh rupees per month is being spent towards salary of the Inspectors posted at Control Room.

It was noticed that Inspectors posted at Control Room were not in uniform and spending time on telephone or talking with their colleagues. So a strict higher officer has issued several office orders regarding Control Room. Some of the salient features are as under:

++ Inspectors posted at Control Room must wear proper uniform and they have to give proper respect (i.e. salute) to their higher officers when they take entry or exist to/from the building. (There is large number of officers of higher cadres than the cadre of Inspector. However, it was verbally informed that Control Room Inspector should salute at least to the Chief Commissioner, Commissioners and Additional Commissioners. There is one Chief Commissioner, six Commissioners and twelve Additional/Joint Commissioners sitting in the building.) There was much protest from Inspectors because it is not always possible to immediately come out from the Control Room to give respect, i.e. salute, these officers. There may be other reasons also. However, finally it was decided that Control Room officer, can express their ‘respect' from inside the Control Room also!

++ Gate Pass for each and every visitor should be prepared by the Control Room officer himself.

++ A register containing particulars of the visitors has to be maintained.

++ The baggage of the visitors should be checked by the Sepoys posted at Guard duty under supervision of the Control Room officer.

Advocates appearing for the Hearings have expressed their protest against the system of taking Gate Pass by standing in queue with common men. Therefore, now there is a separate register for Advocates and they are not required to obtain Gate Pass.

LIFT

There are two elevators and both are running throughout the day. Due to heavy electricity bills, it was decided that one lift will stop at odd number of floors and another will stop at even number of floors. Indeed a very good decision. Staff members, who were not climbing a single step, have to do a little exercise of stepping up or down one floor, if they got into the lift not stopping at their floor.

However, at the time of beginning and closing of officer hours, one lift is always reserved for Honourable Commissioners only. The lift-man locks the lift and waits for the Commissioner to arrive or depart. If one lift (locked) is available at Ground floor, another lift would not come to Ground floor by pressing the button to call it. The electronic mechanism of lifts does not understand that one lift has been reserved for honorable Commissioner and so the ordinary staff members require another lift! Who says now there are no Kings in India?

TOILET

Top officers have chosen to sit on the top floor. Earlier there were common toilets for all persons (of course separate for men and women!) at every floor. When any lower staff member was standing at urinal, some higher officer like Commissioner has to stand in the adjacent urinal, which was causing embarrassment to both. So, a new toilet block has been constructed at 7 th floor for ‘Officers only' and the same is being used by class I officers.

Thereafter, while working at the 7 th floor, staff members (below the class I rank) are now coming to 6 th floor for toilet. On being inquired, it reveals that the toilet block meant for common staff members at 7 th floor has now been converted into ‘wash area' and it has been reserved for the use of the lady Chief Commissioner only! (Though there is a separate toilet for ladies at 7 th floor). So, now there is no toilet left for common men at 7 th floor and they have to use the toilet situated at 6 th floor.

No doubt, senior officers deserve respect and toilet. But, simultaneously it should be also ensured that the ordinary staff should not be put to inconvenience.

CANTEEN

The canteen is being run by a private contractor. In Income Tax office, food in the Canteen is available at subsidized rates. No subsidy is available for this canteen. It is learnt that for availing subsidy, canteen has to be run on co-operative basis. A lot of paper work and correspondence has to be done for availing government subsidy. No one is interested in getting the subsidy. If canteen food will available at subsidized rates, it will be more beneficial of lower staff members, who are coming from outside the city and regularly taking food in canteen.

AIR CONDITIONERS

No doubt, chambers of all class I officers are air conditioned. There is one Conference Room and one Seminar Hall; both are air conditioned. Statistics Section has to do timely and accurate work and so, it is air conditioned. Officers working in ‘non sensitive' Chief Commissioner's unit should have some ease of working and therefore, Chief Commissioner's Unit is air conditioned. CAAP Audit Section is air conditioned so that their computers remain cool. Few other sections have also managed to get A.C.

The remaining staff members have to sit under the fans. Fans are provided by CPWD and some of the fans are not having proper speed to provide good air. The room height is much higher than the ordinary room height. So, the officers working under the fans do not get much air flow to tolerate the heat of 42 o to 48 o C in summer.

If false ceilings are made and the large number of single A.C.s are replaced by a central air conditioning plant, all staff members can efficiently work in air conditioned environment without much increase in electricity bill.

Central Excise Bhavan – the other side

If this is the plight of the officers of the Department, the fate is no better for assessees and consultants. While almost all the Chief Commissioners and Commissioners sit in opulent offices, they have not ensured that their visitors have minimum comforts – and their visitors are not ordinary people; they are either top assessees or top consultants. The other day I saw a retired Member of the Board sitting on a rickety chair, beside a Sepoy outside an Additional Commissioner's room waiting for a personal hearing with the Big Boss. The Sepoy was sitting in grand style while the former member was squirming in his seat unable to beat the heat and humiliation, while the Additional Commissioner was busy inside, probably with protocol arrangements for his Commissioner. I asked the former Member whether it was necessary for him to go through this humiliation and heat just to get an order which is bound to be against his client. The HUMBLE former Member (maybe humbled after retirement) told me, “let the officer enjoy his ego!” How nice it would have been if the Additional Commissioner had come out of his room and escorted the former Member into his room!

Your guests are top tax payers (or their representatives) who ensure that you get your fat salaries – the least you can do for them is to provide comfortable seats and maybe some good drinking water and clean toilets (there is none earmarked for the assessees in the current scheme of things). After all they are if not anything else, the citizens of this country – whose servant you are.

SEZs - Effective implementation of the Hazardous Waste Rules, 2008

As per the legal framework of SEZs, Approval Committees have been set up under the respective DCs for granting approvals for setting up of units in the SEZs. The Approval Committees meet on a regular basis and have representatives from the State Government and GOI. It is felt that the officers of the State Pollution Control Boards should attend these meetings and assist the DCs in ensuring compliance of the environmental regulations, especially Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling & Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2008. This will also ensure that all required environmental norms are met before approval for setting up of units in SEZs.

SPCBs can also use this forum to acquaint the SEZ officers & Customs authorities about the provisions of the Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling & Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2008. In particular, it needs to be emphasized that --

a) no import of hazardous waste from any country to India for disposal is permitted.

b) Import shall be only for the intended use of recycling or recovery or reuse.

c) Customs authorities at the Ports have the responsibility to verify the documents, draw random samples prior to clearing the consignment and ensure that each consignment is accompanied by movement document (Form-9) and a certification from an accredited agency. They are also required to take action under the Customs Act, 1962 against importers found to be violating these rules.

It is requested that the SPCBs should monitor the units which are recycling/ reprocessing imported waste on a regular basis, take action against violations and keep the Ministry informed.

Ministry of Environment & Forests Office Memorandum Dated: September 24, 2009

Tariff Value of Brass Scrap increased

Government has increased the Tariff Value of Brass Scrap from US Dollars 3285 to 3328 per MT and decreased the value of Poppy Seeds from 3057 to 3018 dollars.

NOTIFICATION NO. 156/2009-CUSTOMS (N.T.) Dated: October 15, 2009

Jurisprudentiol – Tuesday's cases

Central Excise

Valuation of Physician Samples – Assessee paying duty on basis of Board Circular dated 01.07.2002 in spite of the said Circular having been amended on 25.04.2005 – No mens rea established so as to call for imposition of penalty u/s 11AC – Revenue appeal dismissed - CESTAT

THIS appeal is preferred by the Revenue against the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) who held that in the facts and circumstances of the case the penalty cannot be levied on the respondent under section 11AC of the Central Excise Act, 1944.

The facts of the case are that the respondent is a manufacturer of medicaments and while discharging central excise duty on physician samples manufactured for loan licensees the valuation was done on the basis of 110% of the cost of production.

Income Tax

DTAAs - non-resident assessees provide satellite transponders on lease to telecasting and telecom companies for uplink & downlink of TV programmes and data transmission - Can such lease be treated as transfer of 'right to use' for scientific equipment? Can payments be treated as royalty? - ITAT Spl Bench holds payments made to non-resident Cos are royalty, taxable under I-T Act as well as DTAAs

GOING by the rapid-fire growth of the Television industry in India, it can safely be said that all TIOL Netizens are users of twin services - the broadcasting and the bandwidth services. All of us consume and relish them as fruits of modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT). But have we ever thought of the process involved in beaming these signals either to our Televisions or computers? Most of us never had a chance to split our hair over this issue! But this is exactly the million-dollar issue involved in the present case decided by the ITAT Special Bench last Friday. The question before the bench was that whether the transponders located at geostationary satellites (also known as communication satellites) can be treated as scientific equipment? (The transponders are utilised for beaming TV signals in 'foorprint area' and also internet for data transmission). Is there any process involved for the broadcasting companies to uplink and downlink signals for telecasting programmes? If that is so, can the payments made for hiring transponders by Indian broadcasting and telecom companies be treated as 'royalty' income within the meaning of clause (vi) of Explanation 2 to Section 9(1)(vi) of the Income Tax Act and also the relevant Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) for the non-resident assessees? Are such royalty payments made to non-resident providers of transponders taxable in India?

Customs

Demurrage charges – as per the detention certificate issued by the Customs, the detention was not due to any fault or negligence on the part of the importer – In such cases, the customs alone has to pay the demurrage charges for the period covered in the certificate – for rest of the period, the importer is liable to pay the demurrage charges – High Court

THE issue has passed through many rounds of litigation. The petitioner company imported Bearing Seamless Tubes valued at USD 310/MT, filed Bill of Entry and sought for clearance of the said goods under Duty Exemption Entitlement Scheme which was rejected by the Customs and the value was also enhanced to USD 1800/MT.

See our columns Tomorrow for the judgements

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice day.

Mail your comments to vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com