Service Tax - Adjudication - JC's Adjudication Power Enhanced to Rs. 2 Crore; Supdt. 10 lakh
TIOL-DDT 2940
29 09 2016
Thursday
MAYBE before the GST comes into existence, CBEC wants to dispose of as many cases as possible at the Departmental level. The Board has enhanced the adjudication powers of the officers. The existing and revised monetary limits are:
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Prior to 28.09.2016
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With Effect From 28.09.2016
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Sr. No.
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Central Excise Officer
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Amount of service tax or CENVAT credit specified in a notice
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(1)
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(2)
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(3)
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(1)
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Superintendent of Central Excise
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Not exceeding Rs. one lakh (excluding the cases relating to taxability of services or valuation of services and cases involving extended period of limitation.)
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Not exceeding rupees ten lakh (excluding the cases relating to taxability of services or valuation of services and cases involving extended period of limitation).
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(2)
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Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise or Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise
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Not exceeding Rs. five lakhs (except cases where Superintendents are empowered to adjudicate.)
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Not exceeding rupees fifty lakh (except cases where Superintendents are empowered to adjudicate).
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(3)
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Joint Commissioner of Central Excise
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Above Rs. five lakhs but not exceeding Rs. fifty lakhs
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Rupees fifty lakh and above but not exceeding rupees two crore,
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(4)
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Additional Commissioner of Central Excise
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Above Rs. twenty lakhs but not exceeding Rs. fifty lakhs
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(5)
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Commissioner of Central Excise
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Without limit.
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Without limit.
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So, now Superintendents can adjudicate up to ten lakh rupees, AC/DC up to fifty lakh, JC/ADC upto two crore and Commissioner as usual without limits. As such to many an assessee, it doesn't matter who adjudicates and with what limit, as the Show Cause Notices are routinely confirmed. It would be better if the intermediary stage of Commissioner (Appeals) is abolished.
Now, what will happen to the pending cases? In the next few months the major activity in the Commissionerates would be to transfer
1. All cases pending with Commissioner where the demand is less than two crore rupees, to the ADC/JC.
2. All cases with ADC/JC where the demand is less than fifty lakh rupees, to the DC/AC.
3. Most of the cases with DC/AC where the demand is less than ten lakh rupees, to the Superintendent.
The assessees will be addressed letters to intimate the new adjudicating authority.
Perhaps the Board would now rescind the Circular 80/01/2005-ST dated August 10, 2005 and come out with a new one.
Maybe till GST comes, there will be no adjudication, only transfer of files!
Notification No. 44/2016-ST., Dated: September 28 2016
Audit Commissioners can now adjudicate
WHEN the Audit Commissionerates were formed in 2014, their job was meant to be to audit and to issue Show Cause Notices. These notices were to be adjudicated by the jurisdictional Central Excise/Service Tax Officers. CBEC in Circular No. 985/09/2014-CX, dated, September 22, 2014 clarified, "Audit function will end with the issuance of show cause notice and further action including adjudication and follow-up shall be the responsibility of Executive Commissioner."
Notification No. 30/2014-CENT, dated 14.10.2014 conferred the powers on Audit officers as:
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Sl. No.
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Central Excise Officer
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Central Excise Officers whose powers are to be exercised
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Purposes
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(1)
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(2)
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(3)
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(4)
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1.
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Principal Chief Commissioner of Audit or Chief Commissioner of Audit
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Chief Commissioner of Central Excise
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Audit and issue of Show Cause Notice
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2.
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Principal Commissioner of Audit or Commissioner of Audit
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Commissioner of Central Excise
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-do-
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3.
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Additional Commissioner of Audit
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Additional Commissioner of Central Excise
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-do-
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4.
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Joint Commissioner of Audit
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Joint Commissioner of Central Excise
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-do-
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5.
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Deputy Commissioner of Audit
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Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise
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-do-
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6.
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Assistant Commissioner of Audit
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Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise
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-do-
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7.
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Superintendent of Audit
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Superintendent of Central Excise
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-do-
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Now, all these officers are, in addition to the powers of audit and issue of Show Cause Notice, empowered to adjudicate.
Notification No. 47/2016-CENT., Dated: September 28 2016
Service Tax - ST-3 Form Amended
THE Government has amended the Service Tax Rules to make changes in the ST-3 Form, mainly to include Krishi Kalyan Cess.
Notification No. 43/2016 - ST., Dated: September 28 2016
Discontinuation of practice of making manual debits on physical copy of Advance Authorizations registered at EDI Customs port - CBEC Instruction
IT was brought to Board's notice that even for Advance Authorizations registered electronically at EDI Customs location i.e. where electronic ledger gets maintained, the physical authorizations, that are simultaneously issued and presented, are endorsed by Customs with manual debits of usage and this practice is not uniformly followed at all EDI ports of registration. It was informed that such manual endorsements replicate work, cause delay, and at times also lead to errors, all of which impose transaction costs on trade.
Board, as a measure of enhancing the ease of doing business for exporters has decided that the practice of evidencing debits manually on physical copy of Advance Authorization shall be discontinued with respect to future authorizations electronically registered at Customs EDI locations. Henceforth, the officer examining the imported goods and/ or giving Out-of-Charge order shall also re-check that the proper debit of the authorisation in the EDI system has been made.
CBEC F.No.605/30/2015-DBK., Dated: September 28 2016
Income Tax Declaration Scheme - No need of PAN
THE Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 came into effect from 1st June, 2016 and is to close tomorrow.
Can an assessee who does not have a PAN file declaration under the Scheme?
CBDT has decided that in such cases a declaration under the Scheme can be filed manually before the jurisdictional Pr.Commissioner/Commissioner by quoting the date and acknowledgment number of PAN application form. The Pr.Commissioners/Commissioners are directed to accept such declarations.
However, the jurisdictional Pr.Commissioner/Commissioner shall issue Form-2 only after the allotment of PAN to the declarant.
CBDT Instruction No. 10/2016., Dated: September 28 2016
FTP - Allocation of quantity for export of preferential quota sugar to EU under CXL quota
THE DGFT has allocated a quantity of 10,000 tons of white sugar under CXL concessions to European Union (EU) for the period October, 2016 to September, 2017.
DGFT Public Notice No. 34/2015-2020., Dated September 28 2016
FTP - Inadvertent Errors corrected
THE DGFT has corrected some inadvertent errors in Public Notice No. 29 dated 08.09.2016 and in Public notice No. 27 dated 31.08.2016.
DGFT Public Notice No. 35/2015-2020., Dated September 28 2016
FTP - New Office of DGFT at Belagavi, Karnataka
THE DGFT has opened a new Regional Office at Belagavi, Karnataka for the five districts of Belagavi, Bagalkot, Dharward, Uttara Kannada and Bijapur.
DGFT Public Notice No. 36/2015-2020., Dated September 28 2016
SAKSHAM - Bonanza for CBEC
THE Revenue Officers who were feeling left out and ignored in the GST Scheme received a boost yesterday when the cabinet sanctioned a whopping Rs.2,256 crore for the 'Project SAKSHAM', the new Indirect Tax Network (Systems Integration) of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). The IRS officers are very happy that they have their own version of GSTN, all for themselves. Subramanian Swamy was quick to tweet - "The unravelling of GSTN has begun. The Cabinet today set up a new back end network called Saksham under CBEC and allocated 2256 crores."
But the Government has clarified that there is no overlap in the GST-related systems of CBEC and GSTN.
Global Competitiveness Index - India's Rank Improves
DATA released yesterday by the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows that India's ranking in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) has improved by 16 places for the second year in a row. According to the latest ranking, India is placed 39th among 138 countries, ahead of BRICS countries other than China which is ranked 28th.
The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the India's rank has steadily improved from 71 in 2014-15 to 55 in 2015-16 and to 39 in the latest report. With this improvement in its ranking, India has covered a long distance and is well on its way to emerge as a major player in the global economy.
Switzerland, Singapore and the United States remain the world's most competitive economies; India is the highest rising economy, climbing 16 places.
Tax laws are similar to the writings of Karl Marx and the writings of Sigmund Freud in that many of the people who loudly proclaim opinions about these documents have never read them.
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Until Tomorrow with more DDT
Have a nice day.
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