Service Tax Demand Notices being served through private couriers
We received this mail from a Mumbai Netizen.
I am an employee of a broking firm. My employer pays my salary as ‘professional fees.' Recently in the mailbox of my building premises, I found an envelope addressed by the Service Tax, Division IV of the Service Tax Commissionerate, Mumbai. The content is a ‘show cause notice' issued by an unnamed Joint Commissioner and addressed in my name demanding Service Tax of nearly ten lakhs rupees under the category ‘Business Auxiliary Services' for the period 2005 to 2008. On the reverse of the envelope was the slip of a Private Courier company who supposedly dropped the same in the mailbox.
I was aghast by the demand notice and my family members were in tears but after regaining my composure, I brooded over and the result is these questions –
Can government communications be sent through private courier service?
Can a demand notice be dropped in my mailbox and proceedings initiated by the department?
Will such ‘serving' of notice be considered legal?
I am going to keep mum and when called for a hearing by another such ‘couriered communication,' I am not going to turn up and worse to worst if there is any person from the department knocking on my door, I am going to bluntly deny having received any notice or communication for none of them have been acknowledged by me. Will keep you posted Sir. One more thing, I happened to call up the courier company and was told that they were the blue birds in the trade.
An intelligent move that. By the way, if the Service Tax officers are unaware of the provisions of Section 37C of the Central Excise Act, 1944 as made applicable to Service Tax matters by Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994, then the Board or the DGST should enlighten them.