Commissioner directed to return Rs 6 Cr received from HDFC Bank Ltd to applicant
THE recovery drive initiated by the Revenue authorities based on the Board Circular 967 has drawn stinging criticism from all quarters but that does not deter the Revenue from adopting a hot pursuit.
Although many assessees against whom such actions has been initiated have knocked the doors of the High Court and the CESTAT and have received favourable orders restraining the department from effecting any recovery as long as the appeals are pending, this does not help assessees who do not have the wherewithal to appoint Advocates and Consultants to file Writ petitions and make a mention of this recovery proceeding in the CESTAT.
We recently came across a case where against an adjudged dues of Rs.5 lakhs and in respect of which an appeal was pending before the CESTAT, the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner in Mumbai wrote to three bankers of the assessee asking them to debit an amount of Rs.5 lakhs from the account of the assessee and send Demand drafts as the same are the dues recoverable from the assessee by the Department. This letter was issued on Friday to the bankers and all the three bankers debited the assessees account by an amount of Rs.5 lakhs each.
So, on Monday, the Assistant Commissioner was a proud recipient of Rs.15 lakhs of DDs and the assessee was left sulking.
Reason - the Central government offices were closed on Saturday and Sunday and the banker was in no mood to listen to him on Saturday. He could not knock any door!
The present case is another example of the highhandedness.
An appeal filed along with a Stay application by the appellant against a Service Tax demand confirmed by the Commissioner was listed for consideration of Stay application on 14/01/2013. The o-in-o is dated 22/03/2012.
The department requested the CESTAT that the matter be adjourned (for they had other wicked ideas in mind). Inasmuch as the department had already issued an attachment notice to the banker HDFC Bank Ltd., Worli, Mumbai and the said bank had remitted the amount by a DD dated 12/01/2013 and the said demand draft had been deposited to the credit of the exchequer.
Incidentally, although the department had sought an adjournment, the Tribunal had passed an order granting interim stay on the matter till disposal of the stay application and this order is dated 14/01/2013.
Since the department had encashed the DD, the appellant made a mention of the matter before the CESTAT on 28/01/2013 and the Bench held - "Inasmuch as the interim stay has been granted vide this Tribunal order dated 14/01/2013, we direct the Revenue to refund the amount received from the HDFC and not to proceed with recovery measures during the pendency of the stay application forthwith."
For the record, the amount involved in the demand draft is a whopping Rs.6,03,66,313/- [Rupees Six crores, three lakhs sixty six thousand three hundred thirteen only].
As for when the refund would be sanctioned, is anybody's guess. And what about the interest and the damages for the humiliation for all those cheques that groaned before bouncing?
Will this extortion ever stop?
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