DGCEI books 41 cases of evasion of excise duty and Service Tax

By Vijay Kumar

A PIB press release says that during the month of June 2005, the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) booked 41 cases of evasion of Central Excise and Service Tax involving an amount of Rs.83.40 [26 cases of Central Excise involving revenue of Rs.68.88 crores and 15 cases of Service Tax involving revenue of Rs. 14.52 Crores]. DGCEI also recovered an amount of Rs. l1.92 crores as voluntary (???) payment of duty during investigation

Will DGCEI reveal how many cases it booked five years ago survived beyond the Tribunal? It beats logic, why should any one voluntarily pay huge amounts which they are alleged to have evaded? The modus operandi is the officers gently persuade the assessees to voluntarily pay up and as if by magic, the hard core evaders have a change of mind on seeing the sleuths and pay up. The tragedy is later this fact of voluntary payment is shown as proof against the assessee for his guilt. “ If he was not guilty, why would he pay voluntarily, my lord?”