Jewellery Excise - Government woos trade with more sops
TIOL-DDT 2888
14 07 2016
Thursday
YOU don't need to submit your ground plan for registration; there will be no transit checks by Central Excise officers; they will not audit you for the next two years if your turnover is less than 100 crores; there will be no visit, search and seizure at job workers premises; no summons will be issued without the permission of the Commissioner; small scale exemption limit enhanced to Rs. 15 Crore.
"But please come into our net", seems to be the message of the government with regard to the excise duty of 1% [without cenvat credit] or 12.5% [with credit] imposed on articles of jewellery with simplified procedures in this year's budget. The Trade tried every trick in the trade to avoid the excise department, but the Government seems to be determined and for once there is no rollback. Please see Breaking News for more details.
Judge loses job for awarding less than minimum sentence in Customs Case
IN this strange case a Judge lost his job for awarding a sentence less than the minimum prescribed under the Customs Act. The Chief Judicial Magistrate at Bhuj delivered a judgement in two Customs cases on 22 January 1997 awarding sentence of imprisonment to 12 accused persons. The sentence of imprisonment was less than the minimum stipulated under Section 135 of the Customs Act. Moreover, the sentence of imprisonment was so structured that after allowing the benefit of a set-off, the accused was not required to remain in jail for a further period. The accused were alleged to be involved in the smuggling of 275 silver slabs of a value of Rs. 5,86,50,620/-.
Now the Judge was charge-sheeted alleging that:
1. The judge who was a senior judicial officer was aware of the provisions of Section 135 which prescribe the award of at least a minimum sentence.
2. The case involved smuggling of a huge quantity of contraband articles.
3. The Judge was aware of judicial decisions mandating that a liberal view should not be taken in the award of sentences in such cases. Yet, with the intention of favouring the accused, the Judge awarded less than the minimum sentence without recording special or adequate reasons.
It was charged that:
1. He was guilty of indulging in Corrupt-practice.
2. He was guilty of dereliction in discharging his judicial functions.
3. He acted in a manner unbecoming of a Judicial Officer.
After a due process of disciplinary proceedings, the Judge was dismissed from service on 14th July 2009.
The judge approached the High Court which observed:
1. The charge of misconduct in Disciplinary Inquiry was based on evidence and it could not be held that the conclusions of the Disciplinary Committee, which were adopted by the Full Court, were based on no evidence.
2. The Appellant was a judicial officer since 1982, and had worked for nearly fourteen years as a Judge. While dealing with offences under the Customs Act 1962, he was expected to refer to the penal provisions under which punishment was being handed down after recording a conviction.
3. The stand of the Appellant appeared to be that he awarded the sentence without being aware of the statutory provisions.
4. The criminal case with which the Appellant was dealing was not the first case involving an offence under Section 135. That despite the minimum punishment prescribed under Section 135, the Appellant awarded less than the minimum in the case of several accused. No reasons appeared from the judgment for the grant of differential treatment to some of the accused. More significantly, the punishments awarded to all the accused were structured in such a manner that none of the accused would have to serve any further sentence, after accounting for the set-off for the period spent in jail as under- trial prisoner.
5. The punishment of dismissal was not disproportionate to the charge of misconduct which has been found to be established.
The Judge appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court that the Judge paid no heed whatsoever to the provisions of Section 135. The Supreme Court changed the punishment from dismissal from service to compulsory retirement.
Please see 2016-TIOL-100-SC-SERVICE
CBEC Prescribes Procedure for Duty Free Shops
CBEC has prescribed a system of accounting of receipt, storage, operations and removal of goods with regard to Duty Free Shops:
1. Maintenance of records of warehoused goods only in digital form: Every licensee shall maintain electronic records of receipt, handling, storage and removal of the warehoused goods .
2. Returns: a licensee shall file with the bond officer a monthly return of the receipt, storage, operations and removal of goods in the warehouse, within ten days after the close of the month to which such return relates.
3. Facilities: the licensee shall maintain facilities such as computer, photocopier, scanner and printer at the warehouse.
4. Procedure for removal of goods: Every duty free shop shall record their sales to passengers by a computer generated invoice, which shall contain the name of the passenger, flight number & passport number.
5. Jurisdiction: The duty free shops shall be under the general supervision of the Principal Commissioner/ Commissioner of the Airport (Passenger Terminal).
CBEC Circular No.32/2016-Cus., Dated: July 13, 2016
Conference of Tax Administrators 2016, held on 16th-17th June, 2016 - CBDT Action Points
THE following action points were identified during the Rajasva Gyan Sangam of Tax Administrators 2016 on the CBDT side:
- Reduce litigation and provide alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
- Examine the language of the communications from CPC on processing to make them enhance easy comprehension and avoid unnecessary appeals.
- Creating a "Litigation Management Corner" on website of all Pr. CCsIT to provide information on High Court orders to avoid filing of appeal on settled issues in High Court.
- Increase voluntary acceptance of paperless assessment, by pro-active engagement with all stakeholders through advertising and awareness campaigns including through the departmental website.
- Upgradation of infrastructure like computers, scanners, WiFi, etc. For assessing officers.
- The Pr. CCsIT to ensure that all their assessing officers are allotted dedicated and secure official email account by 30.6.2016 for communication with the taxpayers for e-assessment.
- E-assessments will be fast-tracked as an incentive to the taxpayers to opt for e-assessment.
- The Pr.CCsIT to send construction proposals for vacant lands in their jurisdictions within three months to address the shortage of space. Proposals for purchase of ready-built office/residential space may also be expedited.
- Donating surplus old steel almirahs to schools/colleges will be examined by the Board on reference made by Pr.CCsIT, etc..
Do you need the BOARD to examine disposal of old almirahs? Can't you authorize an Inspector to throw them away? Some years ago I had accompanied a US based NRI to the North Block. Right outside the CBDT Chairman's office were dumped old unusable furniture. I told my American friend that the man who sits in that office facing the dumped furniture is the equivalent of their dreaded IRS Chief!
DDT 1211 08.10.2009 had asked - Junk Furniture in Government offices - why not dispose them?
Also see
Poor Ambience in Central Excise and Customs Offices - CCs Responsible - MoS - DDT 1866/ 28.05.2012
Come to office on time - Govt tells Babus - DDT 2422/25.08.2014
CBDT F.No.40/22/2016-ITCC., Dated: July 13, 2016
CBEC's Action Points
CBEC has also circulated its action points among its Chief Commissioners. Some of the points are:
| Actionable Points |
Action owners |
| It is necessary to bridge the trust gap with the taxpayers and turn mentors, while setting an ambitious goal to widen the tax base. |
All Chief Commissioners |
| We need to improve our attitude towards the assessees, and they should feel free to avail of our assistance for paying taxes. Such efforts will help the Department to reach the larger assessee base. |
All Chief Commissioners |
| The tax administrators should convey a message to the taxpayers that the tax paid by them is returned to the people with value addition in the form of services to the people and developmental activities of the country, and therefore, dissemination of such message will encourage non-taxpayers to come forward to voluntarily deposit the tax. |
All Chief Commissioners/ All Directors General |
| There are challenges of the unknown, viz., IT backbone, Administration of Taxes and concurrent jurisdiction that can cause problems. IT backbone will be critical for implementation of GST. |
JS (TRU-I) / JS (TRU-II) / Commissioner (GST Cell) / DG (Systems) |
| There is need to facilitate the honest tax payers while coming down heavily on evaders. Our standard of priority should be of the highest order inspiring confidence amongst taxpayers. |
All Chief Commissioners / DGRI/ DGCEI |
| The tax Departments should treat the taxpayers as its "customers" and a tax paying culture should be inculcated in the country by honouring the top taxpayers. |
All Chief Commissioners |
| Master Circular in Central Excise |
Commissioner (CX) |
| Officers should engage with the public through social media and each officer should have presence in the social media. The officers should also meet the members of the public for at least two hours a day. |
All Chief Commissioners / All Directors General |
CBEC Taxpayer's Experience Survey - Some More Suggestions
SOME of the suggestions received during the Taxpayer's Experience Survey:
• List of cases to be withdrawn, cases in call book, CAG paragraphs should be made public.
• CBEC should give digital signatures to all officers.
• Time limit of one year for availing CENVAT credit should be extended.
• Department officers should understand the phrase "Suppression of facts" properly.
• Prevent unreasonable pressure by investigating agencies against taxpayers on issues involving interpretation.
• Set up a mechanism to ensure that all the circular/instruction/reforms initiated by CBEC are implemented by field formations at respective jurisdiction.
• There should be a time limit to conclude the audits.
• All call book cases should have time limit of 3 years after which the SCN should be deemed to be withdrawn.
• Documentation requirement in case of refund of duty drawback on re-export of imported goods should be reduced.
• Implement the suggestions already given before floating the next survey.
• Focus on timely delivery of service to taxpayers.
• Introduce and implement a service charter with a strong monitoring mechanism.
• Bring about a change in the mindset of revenue officers towards taxpayers.
• Provide training to officers on behavioural and technology aspects and improve their technical knowledge.
• Performance appraisal of tax officers should be mainly based on service delivery parameters instead of revenue realizations.
• Introduce transparent systems to eliminate corruption and harassment.
• Remove the focus from revenue target approach.
• Email be recognized as a formal means of communication at par with letters and documents in paper form; encourage use of e-mails by officers.
• Provide official e-mail ids to all officials for communication with taxpayers; use of personal email ids be discontinued.
• Officers should respond to e-mails seeking clarifications.
• Change in overall approach of CBEC is not visible at the lower level staff.
• Undue favour expected by tax authorities especially at field officer level even for routine work.
• Tax department should focus on tax evaders rather than honest taxpayers.
• Quality of interactions at the field formation level needs to improve.
• Continued prevalence of pro-revenue approach rather than merit based approach.
• Officers should display sensitivity and urgency towards business needs.
• Authorities should be made accountable for delay in responding to taxpayers' requests.
• Officers should respond to telephonic communication for regular follow up/scheduling of personal hearing instead of requiring taxpayers to visit the tax office physically.
• Create a conducive environment for taxpayers and treat them as business partners/stakeholders.
• Minutes of the meetings/discussion with senior tax officials should be recorded with likely timelines for implementation of decisions made
• Conduct workshops for taxpayers to disseminate changes in tax laws and objective thereof.
• Conduct periodical interactive feedback sessions with taxpayers.
• Need to improve infrastructure of tax offices and provide better working environment.
• Set up a monitoring mechanism to ensure that benefit of reforms and simplification measures announced through Board circulars / instructions are implemented by the field formations.
• Ease the process of accepting documents and provide signed acknowledgements.
• Authorities should exhibit key attributes such as being well-informed, unbiased application of mind, observance of judicial discipline, avoiding narrow interpretation etc.
• Discontinue the practice of tax officers visiting business premises to collect information.
• Interact with the representative appointed by the assessee for routine matters instead of demanding direct communication with the assessee.
A cursory glance at these suggestions will reveal that they are all simple small requests which the Board can easily grant. Will it?
Until Tomorrow with more DDT
Have a nice Day.
Mail your comments to vijaywrite@tiol.in
