Summons in Service Tax matters - Board amends Circular
In letter F No. -4, dated 26.02.2007 , CBEC had issued the following directions,
a) For calling for information/documents, normally the mode of communication should be either in the form of a telephone call or by way of sending a simple letter;
b) Issuance of summons should be resorted to, only when the above mentioned modes of communications are found to be ineffective or are likely to jeopardize revenue interest or when it is essential to ensure personal presence of the person concerned to tender evidence or record statement in connection with a service tax evasion case;
a) In cases mentioned under (b) above, the summons should be issued after obtaining prior written permission from an officer not below the rank of Deputy Commissioner with reasons for issuance of summons to be recorded in writing;
b) In case, for unavoidable operational reasons it is not possible to obtain such prior written permission, oral/telephonic permission from such officer must be obtained and the same should be reduced to writing and intimated to the officer according such permission at the earliest opportunity;
c) In all cases, where summons are issued, the officer issuing summons must submit a report on proceeding that took place during the presence of the taxpayer/person summoned, and the officer authorizing issuance of summons must satisfy himself that no harassment has been caused during the visit of the person summoned to the office.
Now you may observe that summons are to be issued only after getting the written permission from the Deputy Commissioner. Now the Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner are supposed to be same rank officers discharging same functions. As per the above circular only Deputy Commissioners can give permission and not Assistant Commissioners.
This lapse is rectified and now the permission can be given by an officer not below the rank of Assistant commissioner.
CBEC F No. 137/39/2007- CX -4, dated 21.11.2008