Why not a mandatory 20% pre-deposit for appeal to CESTAT?
THERE was a proposal to amend the statute to provide for a mandatory pre-deposit of 20% of the duty demanded for appealing to the Tribunal. The logic behind 20% is that the success rate of Government in Tribunal is about 20% and if 20% of duty is collected from all appellants, Government revenue is protected. Once this is statutorily provided for, there would be no need for any stay applications before CESTAT and Tribunal can concentrate on the serious business of deciding appeals and cases need not wait for six to seven years to be decided. All a very cosy situation? Not really - for the lawyers and consultants. Now the major part of the work for any lawyer is getting the stay - with no or least possible pre-deposit - after that, the assessees are safe for about five years. We cannot have any law that will virtually cause huge unemployment among lawyers - so, this proposal seems to have been nipped in the bud.