Jurisprudentiol–Tomorrow's cases

By Vijay Kumar

Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Customs

What does the ‘___' against an entry in Customs Notification 21/2002 under the column for CVD mean? – wait till tomorrow

THE Notification exempts from so much of additional duty as is in excess of the rate specified under column 5. Now this column has nil for certain goods, certain rates as 10% for certain goods and “__” for certain other goods. Now what does this “__” mean? Is it nil, or the tariff rate? You will have to wait till tomorrow to know the answer.

Income Tax

Assessee having more than 25% of domestic sales entitled to partial deduction proportionately on export turnover – In the Income-tax Act there is no statutory provision mandating denial of domestic sales to the export-oriented undertaking. ITAT by Third Member

It is that delicate and important branch of judicial power, the concession of which is dangerous but the denial is disastrous. At one stream stands Lord Denning who said: "We do not sit here to pull the language of the Parliament to pieces and make nonsense of it. That is an easy thing to do. We sit here to find out the intention of Parliament and carry it out. We do this better by filling in the gaps and making sense of the enactment than by opening to destructive analysis . Viscount Simonds called it 'a naked usurpation of the legislative function under the thin guise of interpretation." The intention of legislature is a very slippery phrase. When the language of the statute is transparently plain, it is wrong to give it colour according to the temper of time. When the language implied by the enactment is clear, there is no question of interpreting the provisions in any manner except by giving them their plain and obvious meaning.

Service Tax

Commission received from the “reinsurers” is taxable even before the amendment to Finance Act in 2006 –CESTAT

THE appellant is an insurance broker and also is a reinsurance broker. He receives the commission from the reinsurer also. The question before the Tribunal was whether this commission received from the reinsurers is taxable prior to the amendment in 2006 to the Finance Act, 1994 wherein Sections 65(58) and 60(105)(zl) have been amended to specify “ insurer includes reinsurer”.

Central Excise

Valuation – Trade Discount to dealers not commission, not includible in assessable value - CESTAT

THE moot point to be decided in this case is whether the dealers to whom the appellants extended trade discount were actually not dealers but consignment agents. The only similarity between the two agreements which would have affected the transactions is the point, that dealers were only custodians of the goods and had no right to deal with the goods clearly show that this did not change the character of the transaction.

See our columns Tomorrow for the judgements