Why only taxpayers have to pay price for ignorance of law, what about taxmen?
IMAGINE a situation where the exemption for a particular tax was withdrawn from 1st April, 2010 and the assessee, due to mere ignorance of that fact, continued to avail exemption for a couple of days more. He would be made liable to pay the tax along with interest and penalties under all the sections of the Act, which may be equal to or double the tax amount. But, what if the officers of the department are ignorant of the changes in law?
In a recent workshop organised by the Department of Central Excise, a senior officer addressing a huge audience told that exemption from service tax on transportation of goods by rail was withdrawn from 1st April 2010 and the service tax has to be paid from 1st April 2010 onwards on this service.
But, by 30th March 2010, a new set of Notifications were issued extending the exemption by three more months, which was prominently covered by the print and electronic media (including Taxindiaonline.com), and the ‘learned' senior officer was totally ignorant of the latest developments.
Ironically, these are the very officers who ruthlessly penalise the assessees on the ground that “ignorance of law is not an excuse”. Therefore, the point to be noted is - however high the officer may be, to err is human. So the high and mighty officers should only realize that this equally applies to the other side i.e. trade and industry.