Understanding laws – easier said than done?
People working in tax compliance departments of various industries normally have a tough time in understanding the complexities in the taxation laws. They make a sincere attempt to read them in English and then seek someone's help to translate them into English.
Recently an innocent tax payer rushed to DDT with the ST 3 return. He is a small time service provider and pays service tax on the amount received. He was confused to read this entry in Table F in ST 3:
(a) Gross amount received (paid#) in money:
His doubt was how can somebody ask you to pay service tax on the amount received and also paid ? DDT had to clarify him that it (paid) was meant for those who are liable to pay service tax as recipient of service. His immediate reaction was, “if that is the case, why the entry at (a) ( i ) should read “against service provided” ? Shouldn't they make it “against service provided / received”?
Another alert Netizen had a doubt while reading Rule 16 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002. His point is Rule 16 still refers to CENVAT Credit Rules 2002 ( CCR 2002) whereas it should be CENVAT Credit Rules 2004 ( CCR 2004). He suggested that the rule should be amended to replace CCR 2002 with CCR 2004.
But our babus are very clever. They knew that they would forget to find and replace all references of CCR 2002 with CCR 2004. So they found a simple solution. They made this rule in CCR 2004:
16. Supplementary provision.-
(2) References in any rule, notification, circular, instruction, standing order, trade notice or other order to the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2002 and any provision thereof or, as the case may be, the Service Tax Credit Rules, 2002 and any provision thereof shall, on the commencement of these rules, be construed as references to the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 and any corresponding provision thereof.
So, the reference to CCR 2002 in Central Excise Rules 2002 is valid and also it continues to be valid and should be taken as only reference to CCR 2004, and will continue to be valid even if the CCR 2004 are substituted in future with new rules as the new rules will also have similar supplementary provisions.