TIOL-DDT 1613 · the untouched capture
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Untitled Document</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> <body> <p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#663399" size="3">TIOL-DDT 1613</font><br> 23.05.2011<br> Monday</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Justice Abichandani is No More </strong></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/image/stories/abichandani.jpg" alt="Legal Corner Icon" width="131" height="169" hspace="5" border="0" align="left"><strong>WE</strong> deeply regret to announce the sudden death of the former President of CESTAT and a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. The end came after a massive heart attack yesterday morning at Ahmedabad. He was a prolific writer and an erudite scholar with deep understanding of tax laws and had written several articles for us. Justice Abichandani brought in several revolutionary changes in the CESTAT like a weekly Cause List and a proper dress code for the Tribunal judges and the Departmental Representatives. He also removed the special status of the Principal Bench in Delhi having All India Jurisdiction. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">He was born on Human Rights Day – 10 th December 1942 and was a humanist to the core. He had passed very important landmark judgements like, that an acquitted person cannot be asked to furnish bail; that a dog bite is an accident. He observed that <strong>If a person commits any wrong, undoubtedly he should be penalized or punished, but it is never necessary to humiliate him and maul his dignity as a human being</strong>. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">On the excisability of cinder, there was a lively debate in our columns recently and it was Justice Abichandani who ruled that Cinder was not excisable in </font><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=33&filename=legal/hc/2003/2003-TIOL-107-HC-AHM-CX.htm">2003-TIOL-107-HC-AHM</a></strong></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I vividly remember the few hours I had the privilege of spending with the Justice and his affectionate wife Lakshmi (who was also a judge) and the Guajarati sweets she made me eat, just a few months before his retirement from CESTAT. Talking to him was a great learning experience on the inside stories of Indian Judiciary. I told him that there were rumours that he was trying for an extension in the post of President of CESTAT. He said, “ask Lakshmi”. She told me, “he had had enough, let him leave that job and practice in the Supreme Court. Even if he is given an extension, he would not accept it”. Lakshmi was already practicing in the Supreme Court and he later joined the Supreme Court Bar as a senior advocate. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I called up Lakshmi to express our deep feelings of condolences on behalf of TIOL Netizens. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Death lays its icy hands on kings – judges are no exception; Justice Abichandani is no more – He will live for a long time with his scholarly articles and judgements. </font></p> <p align="center"><strong><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Exemption to Export Promotion Schemes - Marripalem ICD added? </font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>UNDER</strong> several exemption notifications pertaining to imports under the various promotional schemes, the imports are allowed only through certain ports and ICDs. Now Marripalem Village in <strong>Taluk</strong> of Edlapadu, District Guntur in Andhra Pradesh is added to the list. 31 Notifications are amended and the Board needs to be congratulated for amending all the notifications which were required to be amended. This time they have a right list with them. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But there is a catch. There is no <strong>Taluk</strong> of Edlapadu in Guntur District. For that matter there are no Taluks in Andhra Pradesh – they are called Mandals in Andhra Pradesh. Can there be an ICD in a non-existing Taluk? </font></p> <p><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=23&filename=notification/custom/2011/ctariff11_040.htm" target="_blank"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Notification No. 40/2011 - Cus., Dated: May 19, 2011 </font></strong></a></p> <p align="center"><strong><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Service Tax on overseas Trade Fairs/ Exhibition under ‘Business Exhibition Services' - Board Clarifies </font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>AS</strong> per a letter written by the Confederation of Indian Industry, organizing a business exhibition involves three activities viz </font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">++ hiring of premises outside India, </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">++ arranging/ coordinating installation of stalls and </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">++ renting of stalls to Indian Exhibitors. </font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The first two activities are the services received by CII from outside India and third activity is service provided by CII within India. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So the Board has clarified that the third activity is service provided by CII to Indian Exhibitors to participate in exhibition held abroad and does not qualify as export as the consideration is not received by CII in convertible foreign currency as provided under Rule 3(2)(b) of the Export of Services Rules, 2005. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Board further clarifies that as the notification No. 5/2011-ST dated 01.03.2011 exempting Business Exhibition Service when provided by an organiser of business exhibition for holding a business exhibition outside India has been issued, the scope of this clarification will be limited till 28.02.2011. </font></p> <p align="justify"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The issue is not that simple:</font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In <strong><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=12466" target="_blank">DDT 1602 – 05 05 2011</a></strong>, we had covered this issue and mentioned that, </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em><font color="#FF6633"><strong>Even assuming that this notification is required to take care of the cases where the Exhibition is held outside India, but the payment is received in Indian Currency because of participation by the Indian Industrial houses, then the medicine is worse than the disease. That is because even if there is any genuine exporter of this service who is receiving the foreign exchange, has also been covered under this exemption, with the result, he is not entitled for any CENVAT Credit on the input services/ input nor he can claim any export benefits. </strong></font></em></font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6633"><strong><em><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">May be a minor amendment that the exemption applies to the cases where only the amount is received in India Rupees would help the genuine exporters. </font></em></strong></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Will the Board listen? </font></p> <p><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=41&filename=notification/servicetax/2011/circular_tru354_2011.htm" target="_blank"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">CBEC Letter F.No. 354/11/2011-TRU; Dated : March 22, 2011 </font></strong></a></p> <p align="center"><strong><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Service Tax on Renting – Judgement Reserved </font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>THE</strong> Delhi High Court has received the judgement in the Home Solutions case after petitioners argued the rejoinder. Three Member Larger Bench comprising of CJ Dipak Misra, Justice Sanjeev Khanna & Justice Sikri, heard the submissions by way of rejoinder from Sr. Counsels Abhishek Manu Singhvi S. Ganesh; PK Sahu, Advocate (a former IRS officer) also argued. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Judgement has been reserved followed by marathon arguments stretching over many sessions. As of now three High Courts have held in favour of Revenue and none against on this issue.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Once the judgement is pronounced, battle will shift to Supreme Court.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a high stake Rs.35000-crore matter battled out in the court room almost single handed by ASG Chandiok, against a battery of highly paid senior lawyers.</font></p> <p align="center"><strong><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Our Mumbai Seminar - invigorating example of Indian Democracy </font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">WRITING</font></strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> in the <strong>Asian Tax Review</strong>, Larry Lipsher, China based American Tax Expert, who was one of our speakers, states,</font></p> <p align="justify"><em><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">“I spoke on March 18 at the 10th anniversary budget conference in Mumbai sponsored by www.taxindiaonline.com. The key speaker was S. Dutt Majumder, chair of the Central Board of Excise and Customs. I was lucky to see the question and answer period that Majumder conducted after. It was truly an invigorating example of what is so refreshing about Indian democracy. There was no reticence in the questions asked of Majumder, the government's designated point man who will head the division that is expected to implement the nation- wide goods and services tax. Majumder was confronted with pointed and challenging questions, and he fielded them with aplomb. </font></em></p> <p align="justify"><em><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Vijay Kumar, editor in chief of taxindiaonline and an attorney, questioned Majumder about how one can impose a service tax on Indian attorneys — after all, what true service do they perform? The statement aroused laughter from an audience that largely consisted of lawyers.” </font></em></p> <p align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#006600">Jurispruden</font><font color="#FF6633" size="5">tiol</font><font color="#006600"> – Tuesday's cases</font></strong></font></strong></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a></a><img src="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/image/stories/ddt_hammer.jpg" alt="Legal Corner Icon" width="100" height="84" hspace="5" border="0" align="left"><strong><font color="#663399">Service Tax </font></strong></font></p> <p align="justify"><strong><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Banking and financial services received from abroad - not taxable prior to 18.04.2006: CESTAT </font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>IN</strong> as much as the issue is covered by Hon'ble Mumbai High Court and confirmed by Hon'ble Supreme Court <strong><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=42&filename=legal/sc/2009/2009-TIOL-129-SC-ST.htm" target="_blank"><font size="1">[2009-TIOL-129-SC-ST]</font></a></strong>, the High Court found no infirmity in the order of Commissioner(Appeals). </font></p> <p align="justify"><strong><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Income Tax</font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><strong><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Whether assessee is entitled to interest u/s 244 on sum which is refundable after adjustment of MAT credit u/s 115JAA - Yes: Delhi Hc</font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>THE</strong> question before the High Court is - Whether assessee is entitled to interest u/s 244A on the amount which became refundable to the assessee due to the adjustment of MAT credit u/s 115JAA. And the verdict goes in favour of the assessee. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Central Excise </strong></font></p> <p align="justify"><strong><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">ROM - Rectification order can be passed after six months - </font><font color="#FF6633" size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=33&filename=legal/hc/2007/2007-TIOL-806-HC-KAR-CX.htm" target="_blank">(2007-TIOL-806-HC-KAR-CX)</a></font><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> overruled:</font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>SECTION</strong> 35C(2) contain two parts, limitation prescribed i.e. six months under the Central Excise Act is applicable for disposal of the application for rectification to the first part, wherein the Tribunal or Authority, exercises suo-moto power and the said period of limitation for disposal of the proceeding for rectification would not be applicable in respect to the application filed by the aggrieved party. </font></p> <p align="justify"><strong><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">See our columns Tomorrow for the judgements</font></strong></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Until Tomorrow with more <strong>DDT</strong></font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Have a Nice Day.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mail your comments to</font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="mailto:vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com"><strong>vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com</strong></a></font></p> </body> </html>