Anti Dumping Duty on Phenol - Yet another Resurrection
THE Government had imposed provisional anti dumping duty on imports of Phenol originating in, or exported from, Thailand and Japan, by Notification No. 53/2010 dated 19th April 2010. This Notification specifically mentioned that "The Anti Dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective upto and inclusive of the 18th day of October, 2010"
So, from 19th October 2010, this anti dumping duty was not in force.
But now the Government has imposed definitive anti dumping duty on the goods for a period of five years from the date of imposition of the provisional anti-dumping duty, that is, the 19th April 2010.
Now what happens for the period between 19th October 2010 and 30 th November 2010? Of course now they have validated their mistake, but what was the position say on 21st October 2010, when the previous notification had expired and the new notification was not issued? You know what the Customs do? They collect the anti dumping duty even when there is no valid notification to do so! Should the Government indulge in such illegal activities? If the Government does not have respect for the LAWS, who will have? This power of retrospective legislation has made our Revenue officers despotic and callous. It is high time, we do away with the retrospective legislation, once for all. If the Government makes a mistake or forgets to issue a notification, it has to pay for it. It is height of lawlessness to punish an assesse for the mistake of the Government and especially when the government officer gets a reward or promotion for the mistake and the assesse has to pay a huge price.
In the last five years, DDT had pointed out at least thirty occasions when dead notifications have been resurrected and given retrospective effect – all because somebody in the Board was sleeping!
It is now a proven fact, beyond doubt, that the Board is not capable of keeping track of the sunset clause in its notifications; it should seriously consider outsourcing this work.
And there should be some law enacted that tax cannot be imposed with retrospective effect. A little consistency and certainty should be more important than the arrogance of the babu.
Notification No. , Dated: December 1, 2010