Central Excise Day - Chairman Confident of Exceeding Revenue Target - Taxmen to move to Glass House - Don't throw stones
ADDRESSING the Central Excise Day function, in Delhi's National Museum, CBEC Chairman S Dutt Mazumder was confident that his department would exceed the Revenue Target and get the 1% incentive which can be used for infrastructural developments in the Department. Central Excise Revenue had recorded a growth of over 32%. The Chairman gave a brief history of the department highlighting the various activities and achievements.
The Chairman spoke about the new Tax Headquarters coming up which will house the CBDT and CBEC and all their offices in Delhi. The new building will be made of glass, symbolic of the transparency era into which the taxmen are expected to proceed. Maybe our taxmen will remember the adage "people who live in glass houses should not throw stones" or "people who live in grass houses should not stow thrones".
GST: The Chairman explained the difficulties in GST - that it is concerned with various stakeholders unlike the DTC which was entirely the Central Government' s affair. The Chairman was very confident that GST is a reality that cannot be put on hold for long.
Cadre Review: The Chairman said that the cadre review work was almost completed at the Board level and hoped it could be implemented soon.
A Compilation of Supreme Court cases on Service Tax and a book on Vigilance Guidelines were released on the occasion.
YG Parande, Member, CBEC launched the new look ACES.
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Later Finance Minister Pranab Babu released a book Innovations. Picture shows the Finance Minister flanked by MOS Palanimanickam and CBEC Chairman Mazumder.
In Hyderabad: I had the honour of attending the grand celebrations organized by the Commissioners of Hyderabad. The Chief Guest was Justice Subhash Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The Justice clearly stole the show with his brief, but effective speech. He said that often judges are questioned about delays in the justice delivery system, but a small amendment in the statute brings in lakhs of litigation, but there is no corresponding increase in the number of courts. He congratulated the Central Excise Department for deciding not to file appeals up to a certain monetary limit. He advised the Department not to file appeals routinely without carefully examining each case. He recalled a case in his days as a lawyer when the government had appealed against a small compensation. He told the court that all he can get is a dosa in a good hotel for that kind of money! The discerning judge noticed how well the dais was decorated and congratulated the organizers.
Central Excise Commissioners BB Prasad and SN Saha explained the historical evolution of Central Excise and the role of the department as a facilitator to the assessees. Several assessees and officers were felicitated on the occasion.
Many officers told me that they would eagerly wait for today's DDT for our sharp critical comments on the function - We are sorry to disappoint them - No, we are not spoiling the birthday party.
But one thing has to be mentioned - the Public Relations of the Department are almost non-existent. Whenever they do something bad, it gets them adverse publicity without any effort on their part, but when they do something good they do it secretly and never tell the world about it. We in TIOL are ready to give them all the good coverage, but they never send us any press notes or give us any details.