CESTAT Bench at Allahabad -Not functioning for vested reasons? - Registrar Summoned by HC
14 08 2015
Friday
FOR a background of this issue, please see Elusive CESTAT Bench at Allahabad - Persistent HC- DDT 2659 10 08 2015.
On 7.8.2015, the Court had asked the District Magistrate, Allahabad to be present in the Court on 11.8.2015.
On that day the Court gave elaborate directions to the District Magistrate about finding a place to house the Tribunal.
1. To take necessary information from various departments like the Allahabad Development Authority, Nagar Nigam, Allahabad etc. and intimate the Court with regard to the availability of a suitable accommodation of 15,000 sq.ft. of land and building for the purpose of housing the Central Excise Appellate Tribunal at Allahabad.
2. To consider the land and building, which was earlier housed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, as well as the building in which the Income Tax Department, Allahabad is functioning.
3. To find out the availability of the space in the present building, which houses the Central Administrative Tribunal.
4. To make physical inspection of the Income Tax building and give a report with regard to the feasibility of housing the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal either on a temporary basis or on a permanent basis.
5. To also inspect the adjacent building, namely, the Central Excise building and give a report with regard to availability of space in that building and also the feasibility of construction of an additional floor.
6. To also consider availability of space in the newly made buildings being built by private builders and developers, which has come up all over the city.
7. to also see the availability of private buildings and land, if government building and land is not available.
8. To also consider the building, which was previously occupied by the Official Liquidator.
The Court directed a comprehensive report to be submitted by the District magistrate by 20.08.2015.
Jurisdiction of Allahabad Bench - Vested Interests preventing the Bench from functioning?
The Registrar of CESTAT in an affidavit before the Court stated that the jurisdiction of the Bench at Allahabad is yet to be notified by the President CESTAT (under Section 129C of the Customs Act, read with Section 35D of the Central Excise Act, Section 86 of the Finance Act, 1994, Section 9C of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The High Court found this reason untenable. The High Court observed, "It is admittedly, clear that the Registrar under the garb of some representation given by the Indirect Tax Bar Association is not allowing the functioning of the Bench at Allahabad for vested reasons ." (Please see New Benches of CESTAT - Delhi Benches will become redundant? - DDT 2616 10 06 2015)
The High Court further observed that its earlier direction that fresh filing of Customs and Excise Appeals etc. should be done at Allahabad from 01.07.2015, has not been implemented. The Court observed that non-compliance of its orders amounted to contempt. The Court wanted orders to be issued before next hearing.
The Court had earlier ordered that a CESTAT Bench would sit in Allahabad for the time being at least for a week in a month. The High Court wanted orders on this also to be issued by next hearing.
The High Court directed the Registrar of CESTAT to be present before the Court on 20.08.2015 along with an affidavit explaining the circumstances and the constraints in commissioning the functioning of the Bench at Allahabad.
But what about Hyderabad Bench?
The Hyderabad Bench of the CESTAT was also sanctioned along with the Allahabad Bench. They don't have any problem of accommodation in Hyderabad as already a building has been hired and rent is being paid for the past many months. Then what is holding up the Hyderabad Bench?
GST Truck fails to clear first check post - to be delayed by one year?
IN April 2015, DDT 2583, detailed 11 stages to be cleared in 11 months for GST to be implemented. And the first step was to get the Constitution Amendment Bill passed in both houses of Parliament. Then a Netizen told me it would take 11 years to clear the 11 stages. Today after four months, we have not crossed the first stage.
Yesterday the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted,
The importance of GST need not be overstated. It converts the whole country into one economic market. It facilitates the smooth and seamless transfer of goods and services. It reduces harassment and corruption. It mandates a uniform tax regime. It eliminates ‘Tax on Tax'. It adds buoyancy to tax revenue and has a favourable impact on the GDP. The GST has received consistent support from most mainstream parties. The Congress / UPA government announced this idea in 2006 and it introduced the Bill in 2011. Today, it seeks to go back on the GST. The objections in the Congress Party's dissent note are contradictory and trivial. The Parliamentary numbers are loaded against the Congress. It, therefore, relies on disturbance and lung power to prevent its consideration by the Rajya Sabha. The Congress is well aware that any delay in passage of the Constitution Amendment which has been accepted by most States will result in at least one year's delay. That appears to be the Congress' strategy. National interest is least on its priority.
May be there is something wrong with the type of Government we have - perhaps a Presidential form of Government would have reduced the costs and increased governance.
Frivolous Appeals - ITAT Comes Down Heavily on Department
IN a judgement delivered last Friday, the Delhi E Bench of the ITAT slammed the income tax department for the obduracy and adamancy in filing a meritless appeal only because officially they are entitled/empowered to do so.
The Tribunal observed,
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To our minds the present appeal is a prime example of meritless litigation for reasons best known to the few departmental officers having powers of directing authorization for filing appeals.
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This over confidence of the concerned Departmental officers in filing an appeal completely devoid of merit prima facie shows that these officers endowed with the onerous task of handling Department's actions in litigation matters have willfully and deliberately failed to exercise their powers mindfully as required of them as per law and thereby abused government machinery to initiate a litigation which entails financial costs and tarnishes the image of the Department and also strains the government resources.
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This obduracy and adamancy of the concerned officers in filing a meritless appeal only because officially they are entitled/empowered to do so, strikes a blow to the blind faith reposed in them by the tax administration in always acting fairly.
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However only because of the conduct of few Departmental officers who appear to be unconcerned or rather mock the sincere efforts made by CBDT with impunity unmindful of the consequences to the system by their sense of entitlement the reputation of the tax administration suffers, this needs to be addressed at the earliest.
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The entitlement of always believed to be acting in good faith cannot be abused by irresponsibly setting in motion the entire justice delivery system where admittedly there was no grievance to the AO.
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The Assessing Officer including all the officers in the tax administration are functionaries of "the State" exist for "the State" and perform the functions of "the State". For this specific purpose they are entrusted with vast powers to discharge "the State functions". In the discharge of their onerous duties and responsibilities these officers are armed with wide and sweeping powers. The officers who have authorized the filing of the appeals and have filed the appeals have made a travesty of justice.
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Mocking at the system by filing the appeals and highlighting the apathy of the Department by issuing specific instructions from time to time that necessary due diligence and caution is not being exercised while granting authorization for filing appeals and to pursue litigation only in deserving cases.
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Even though the Revenue has indulged in frivolous meritless litigation, we desist from awarding costs considering the statement of the Ld. CIT DR that due care shall be taken in future.
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It is our earnest hope and endeavour that having invited the attention of the Chairman, CBDT to this grave assault on the trust and reputation of fair play enjoyed by the tax administration the malaise is immediately addressed.
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Anti Dumping Duty on Potassium Carbonate - Re-imposed; no resurrection
ANTI Dumping Duty on "Potassium Carbonate", falling under Chapter 28 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, originating in, or exported from, the European Union, the People's Republic of China, Korea RP and Taiwan was imposed vide notification No. 61/2009 -Customs, dated the 10th June, 2009. This expired on 9th June 2014. After more than a month of its expiry, by Notification No. 34/2014-Customs (ADD), dated the 23rd July, 2014, its life was extended till 9th June 2015. The extension also expired on 9th June 2015.
Now, after two months, the government has re-imposed anti dumping duty on the product, thankfully, not with retrospective effect.
However, there is a small change - the designated authority has come to the conclusion that there is no likelihood of recurrence of dumping and injury from People's Republic of China and European Union. And so, these countries are out of the list. That is, Anti-dumping duty is imposable on Potassium Carbonate only if it is coming from Korea RP and Taiwan.
We must thank the Board for avoiding the temptation to resurrect dead notifications.
Notification NO. 40/2015-Cus.,(ADD), Dated: August 12, 2015
Independence Day - It was easier fighting British than Indian Babu
GOUR Hari Das is 84 years old. As a fifteen year old boy, he took part in the freedom fight and was jailed. Das was a part of "Vanar Sena" of freedom fighters during the struggle and used to transport confidential messages from one group to another. It took him 32 years to fight the Indian bureaucracy to get a freedom fighter's certificate.
"I had filed my first application for getting the freedom fighter's certificate at district collector's office on March 12, 1976. And after 22 years (in 1998), I was told by the same office that since I had done my patriotic work in Orissa I should apply for the same to that government. If that is the case they should have told me to do so on the first day of filing the application," he said.
He donates 80 per cent of his freedom fighter's pension to a hospital.
A film about him Gour Hari Dastaan is to be released today on the eve of Independence Day.
Verghese Kurien, the Milk man wrote in an article for us, "The principal enemy of Anand has always been the Milk Commissioner and the Milk Department. That's the principal enemy, not Polsons, not the private traders. So, the main problem is how to educate our bureaucracy to be truly public servants, servants of the people rather than bosses."
This is what Independence is all about. Happy Independence Day.
Until Monday with more DDT
Have a nice weekend.
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