Central Excise Tariff Act – correction spree
As per Section 5 of Central Excise Tariff Act, now the government can, by notification, amend the schedules to the Tariff Act. Now you have to keep track of not only amendments to exemption notifications but also amendments to the chapter notes and the headings themselves. Hitherto amending the tariff was an annual affair done only through the Finance Bill so that you could update your tariff once in a year.
In exercise of this power, the government has come up with a notification making several amendments in several chapters. These are basically corrections. It is good to have this power with the government instead of going to parliament for every small correction. But it will be better if the government does not use this power frequently as that will cause confusion. It will be also convenient if the government has a separate series of numbers for these amending notifications to the tariff - Notification No. , dated 5-05-2005.