1% Duty - 100% Confusion - New Return Form Notified
AS per Notification No. 1/2011 – C.E DATED 1.3.2011, a 1% Central Excise duty was made effective for certain goods.
As per the sixth proviso to Rule 12(1) of the Central Excise Rules, where an assessee is availing the exemption notification No. 1/2011- Central Excise, dated the 1st March, 2011, and does not manufacture any other excisable goods other than those specified in the said notification, he shall file a quarterly return in the form specified by notification by the Board, of production and removal of goods and other relevant particulars, within ten days after the close of the quarter to which the return relates.
The first return under this provision is to be filed by 10th of July 2011. Now the Board has notified the Form for filing this return – Form E.R. 8.
Now-a-days, nothing comes out of the Board without a good amount of bungling and casual mistakes.
The Instruction No. 6 given in the Form makes interesting reading. The instruction states;
++ In the column (8) of Table at serial number 3, the assessable value means,
(a) where goods attract ad valorem rate of duty, the value under section 4 of Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944);
(b) where goods are covered under section 4A of the Act, the assessable value as worked out under MRP after allowing deductions as provided under section 4A of the Act;
(c) in case of goods for which the tariff value is fixed, such tariff value;
(d) xxxxxx
This seeks to explain what the phrase “assessable value” as mentioned in Column 8 of the table to Sl. No. 3 means. A good effort by the Board, but the hitch is that column 8 does not mention “assessable value”. It relates to “quantity cleared”. “Assessable value” is shown at Column 10 and not Column 8. This shows how callous they are in manufacturing their notifications. Apparently, there is nothing like a second check. Shouldn't the Board take a serious view of such silly mistakes, it makes?
Further the Instruction No. 6(a) states that “where goods attract ad valorem rate of duty, the value under section 4 of Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944)”. When the effective rate is 1% adv, don't the goods attract ad valorem rate of duty? What is the purpose of mentioning it again?
Notification No. , Dated : June 30, 2011