TIOL-DDT 2842
10 05 2016
Tuesday

Government to file affidavit on steps taken to fill up posts of President and Vice President

AFTER Justice Raghuram retired as President of CESTAT, there was a sort of a crisis with nobody to prepare rosters from 2nd May 2016. In DDT 2836 02 05 2016, I wrote, "The Government came to the rescue of CESTAT and issued an order dated 29.04.2016, with the approval of the Finance Minister authorizing Mr. Ravindran to prepare roster beyond 29.04.2016, till the joining of the new President."

In an article in our columns, Constitution of Cestat benches by its member (Judicial) - Is it Legal?, Mr. PR Chandrasekharan, former CESTAT Member wrote, "the conferring of powers on the Member (Judicial) for constitution of CESTAT Benches is ex-facie illegal. The hearing of appeals by such irregularly constituted benches can be challenged in a court of law by any aggrieved party and decisions by such benches could be set aside for want of jurisdiction."

Half of what he feared happened. The order of the Government authorizing Judicial Member Mr. Ravindran to issue the roster was challenged in the Delhi High Court.The Petitioner's grievance is that it is being compelled to appear before a forum which has no power or jurisdiction to hear cases.

But the High Court understood the difficulty and observed, "While the Court appreciates the necessity for taking the above step, at the same time, the Court is concerned that since more than two months now no President of the CESTAT has been appointed. The impugned order can at best be treated as temporary arrangement for a certain period and cannot continue indefinitely."

Even the Government considers it only a temporary arrangement. It is understood that the selection of the new President is in advanced stage and in all likelihood, there would be a President before this month end.

The High Court also found that under Section 161 of the Customs Act, there is a general power to the Central Government to act if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of the Act. The Government may, by general or special order, issue directions not inconsistent with the provisions of the Act when it appears to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of removing the difficulty.

With a view to ensure that there is no unnecessary delay in the filling up of the posts of the President and Vice President of the CESTAT, which as is known, has a large pendency of matters, the Court issued notice in this Petition limited to the above aspect. The Central Government will keep the Court apprised, by way of affidavit, by the next date of hearing as to the steps taken to fill up the posts of President and Vice President of the CESTAT. The High Court made it clear that no interim direction is being issued and the matters will proceed as per the roster prepared by the Member (Judicial) of the CESTAT in the meanwhile.

So, the CESTAT is functional.

Please see 2016-TIOL-912-HC-DEL-CUS for the High Court order.

Please also see CESTAT Needs a Regular President - Immediately; CESTAT Saved Just In Time.

Duty Drawback Scheme: Re-export under section 74 of Customs Act - CBEC Instruction

BOARD invites the attention of field formations to Board's Circular No. 46/2011-Customs  dated 20.10.2011 read with Circular No.  35/2013-Customs  which strengthened the assessment practice for export under section 74 of the Customs Act 1962 with respect to whether identity of the goods is established or not as the same goods which were earlier imported on payment of duty under the specific import documents, the determination of use with respect to declaration that goods are "unused" and for ensuring compliance with provisions of Rule 5 of the Re-export of Imported Goods (Drawback of Customs Duties) Rules, 1995. The Circular had directed examination of goods and verification of various parameters for identification of goods and required each case of re-export to be dealt by the Asst/Deputy Commissioner of Customs through a speaking and reasoned appealable order.

Board further directs that the examination report on shipping bill must be recorded separately in a self-contained and explicit manner on each of the two aspects of identity and use. The examination report should not be made of phrases that are cryptic, generalised or sweeping in nature such as 'as per declaration', 'in as such condition', 'found in order', 'found as declared', 'goods are same' etc.

CBEC Circular No. 16/2016-Cus, Dated: May 09, 2016

AIR Drawback - Committee Constituted

GOVERNMENT has constituted a Committee for the purpose of formulation of All Industry Rates (AIRs) of Duty Drawback for the year 2016.

The Committee will:

1. interact with the administrative Ministries, Export Promotion Councils, Commodity Boards, trade bodies and other stakeholders so as to elicit their views on the existing Duty Drawback Scheme (AIR);

2. work out the modalities for calculation of duty drawback and suggest All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback for the year 2016 for the existing items as also for new items as may be suggested by the stake holders.

The Committee will have Mr. Saumitra Chaudhuri, former Member of the former Planning Commission of India as Chairman, Mr. G. K. Pillai, former Commerce Secretary, Mr. Y. G. Parande, former CBEC Member and Mr. Gautam Ray, former Chief Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise as Members.

Department of Revenue F.No.609/23/2016-DBK., Dated May 09 2016

FTP-Import Policy - Radio remote control apparatus

THE Government has amended the import policy under Exim Code 85269200 of Chapter 85 of ITC (HS), 2012, Schedule - I (Import Policy) to make the imports of Radio remote control apparatus FREE subject to licence issued by the WPC wing of Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

DGFT Notification No. 07/2015-2020., Dated May 09 2016

Income Tax - Verification of tax-returns for earlier Years pending due to non-filing of ITR-V - CBDT Instructions

UNDER the earlier system of e-filing, in tax-returns which were to be filed electronically without a digital signature, taxpayer had to take printout of ITR-V Form and send it to Centralised Processing Centre ('CPC'), Bengaluru within 120 days of transmitting the data electronically.

In our Post-Budget Seminar in Hyderabad in 2009, a delegate asked the then Member CBDT, Mr. Khan, what he should do if the CPC at Bengaluru does not get the ITR-V sent by ordinary post. He said, "please send it again."

In view of difficulties being faced by the taxpayers in the process, from time to time, relaxation for filing the ITR-V for various Assessment Years was granted so that process of filing the return could be completed. In law, consequences of non filing the ITR-V within the time allowed is significant as such a return is/can be declared Non-est in law and thereafter, all the consequences for Non-Filing a tax return, as specified in the Act follow.

However, inspite of granting relaxation of time for submitting ITR-V Form on various occasions, a large number of such electronically filed returns still remain pending with the income-tax Department for want of receipt of a valid ITR-V Form at CPC, Bengaluru from the taxpayers concerned.

In order to regularize the returns which have either become Non-est or have remained pending due to non-filing/non-receipt of respective ITR-V Form, the Central Board of Direct Taxes ('CBDT') now permits verification of such returns also through EVC.Such verification process must be completed by  31.08.2016.  As an alternative to EVC, the taxpayer is allowed to send a duly signed copy of ITR-V to the CPC, Bengaluru by this date by speed post.

Board clarifies that this is the final opportunity being provided to the taxpayers to regularize their pending income-tax returns pertaining to the Assessment Years 2009-2010 till 2014-2015 which were filed as per provisions of section 139 of the Act but were declared Non-est/have remained pending for verification just for want of receipt of a valid ITR-V Form at CPC, Bengaluru.

CBDT Circular No. 13/2016., Dated: May 09, 2016

Commissioner (Appeals) has followed a novel way to deny refund to appellant on extraneous ground not known to law - CESTAT Wants Board to Issue Instructions

IN an order last week, the CESTAT Chennai Bench found the Commissioner (Appeals) following a novel way to deny refund. He asked for a Board resolution and a copy of the appointment order of the Chartered Accountant.

The Tribunal marked a copy of the order to the Chairman, CBEC to simplify the procedure of refund and remove the bottlenecks in the system of grant of refund of additional duty of customs, issuing appropriate guideline in that regard so that respect to law by the subordinates grow.

Please see Breaking News for more details.

70% growth in Central Excise Revenue

IT is raining Revenue in Indirect Taxes. The Revenue Secretary has tweeted:

Provisional Rev figures for indirect tax for April 16 is Rs 64394 crores which is a 41% growth over April 15 (45417).Growth without ARM is 17%.

Growth of 22% in Customs(17495 as against 14286) 70% in CE(28252 as against 16546 )& 27% in Service Tax (18647 as against 14585)

Civil Servant!

THE is the picture of an IAS officer with his foot on the cot of a patient in a hospital. After this picture went viral on social media, the IAS officer apologised profusely stating, I would stick to the core values of civil services-Honesty, Integrity, Objectivity, Impartiality and Civility, Modesty, Humility, Chivalry, and strive my level best to be a better civil servant and a better human being.

This babu is a medical doctor turned IAS officer.

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice day.

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