PSU Oil Companies – favourite whipping boys for Central Excise Department
Many of the Oil Refineries are situated in small towns and they are the major source of income, litigation and facilities for the Central Excise Department. A senior officer in Cochin Commissionerate told me that the Refinery in Cochin is the only real industry in Kerala and it is the batting ground for all and sundry. If you need a case, if you need a car, if you need a guest house, if you need an audit para, if you need to meet your Revenue target – well there is the refinery at Cochin!
In Vizag, there is the HPCL Refinery – top officers visiting Vizag stay in their Guest House and the major cases are against the Refinery. When they don't pay up the huge demands of Crores of rupees that the Demand raises, one plan of action suggested in all meetings in the Department is to seize the GM's car. An Intelligence officer who thought that all problems could be solved by seizing the car which could be worth Crores of rupees, found to his dismay that the GM was driving round in an old Ambassador car that will not fetch more than two lakhs of rupees.
There are any number of consultants who became rich representing these Oil Companies in litigation that could have been easily avoided if two Secretaries of the Government could sit together and sort out the difference.
Tomorrow we bring you a case where a PSU Oil Company was stuck with a demand of over a Hundred Crores with an equal amount of penalty. Who wins in litigation between PSUs and Central Excise Department? Consultants of course!