TIOL-DDT 21 · the untouched capture
Rendered as it looked. Links and images are disabled in this view; the file itself is untouched.
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div align="justify">
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b><font color="#0000FF" size="3">TIOL-DDT
21</font><br>
30 12 2004<br>
Thursday</b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<b>Commissioner (Appeals) – The office needs to be institutionalised</b></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>THERE</b>
is unfortunately a lot of stigma attached to the post of Commissioner (Appeals).
Who gets appointed as Commissioners (Appeals)? Normally one with no pulls
or one who is not wanted around for often suspect reasons. Several posts of
Commissioner (Appeals) are lying vacant. Why? Simply there are no takers.
This is one post where you are required to work – at least sign a couple
of orders a day, but has no perks attached, comparable to a territorial Commissioner.
A Commissionerate can certainly run or even run better without a Commissioner
but the appellate unit cannot function without a Commissioner (Appeals). I
know <b>at least one commissionerate where no Commissioner has been posted
for the last five years!</b> Recently we reported a case where the stay petition
of the party could not be disposed of because there was no Commissioner (Appeals)
, but the Assistant Commissioner went on to attach the goods from the assessee.
The harried assessee (a major PSU) had to knock at the doors of the High Court
to save its skin temporarily from the Revenue.<br>
<br>
One of the reasons put forth by the Customs and Central Excise Department
for creating a large number of posts of Commissioners (Appeals) was that these
Commissioners would clear the pending cases and the state coffers would be
overflowing with the payments made by the litigants. The good Government accepted
this preposterous plea and agreed to promote a large number of officers.<br>
<br>
But the promised queue outside banks by the relived appellants eager to make
payments consequent to appellate orders remained a mirage. Why? One reason
could be there were not many appellate orders! Why? There are no Commissioners
(Appeals). Why? Commissioners (Appeals) do not have half the glamour of a
jurisdictional Commissioner with his retinue of staff and vehicles. The <b>Commissioner
(Appeals) is always</b> <b>dependent on the jurisdictional Commissioner for
everything ranging from paper to protocol</b> and no protocol officer worth
his smart uniform will waste his talents on a Commissioner (Appeals); with
the result there are not many takers for these posts and several of the newly
created posts are lying vacant which makes life more difficult for the assessees
as getting stay also has become difficult. And a determined government is
keen to collect arrears - even by transferring a Commissioner (Appeals) as
Commissioner(arrears)!<br>
<br>
This first appellate authority of the department is so neglected and disrespected
that many of the Commissioners show scant respect not only to the Commissioners
(Appeals) but also to their orders. <b>Unless this office is institutionalised
and strengthened, the quality of justice in the department is bound to suffer
and retard further.</b><br>
<br>
<b><font color="#006633">DDT suggests that:-</font></b><br>
<br>
1) The Commissioner (Appeals) should be de-linked from the department. Anyway
several wings are going out of the Board and this is a good office that can
and should go. The Commissioner(Appeals) may be placed under the CESTAT or
under a Chief Commissioner(Appeals) with independent funds and functioning.
Commissioners(Appeals) are often invited to meetings called for by Chief Commissioners
to discuss revenue augmenting. There was a Commissioner who wrote a letter
to the Chairman that a part of the credit for his good performance should
go to the Commissioner(Appeals) who was consistently refusing to grant stay!<br>
<br>
2) The Commissioner(Appeals) should hold court in an open room where advocates,
consultants and others should be allowed to be present. The proceedings should
be like in the Tribunal.<br>
<br>
3) The Commissioner(Appeals) should pass his orders in open court.<br>
<br>
4) The defending or appealing departmental officer should invariably be present
in hearings before the Commissioner(Appeals) and should present his case.<br>
<br>
5) Nobody should be posted as Commissioner(Appeals) against his will. This
should be a post on selection by calling for willingness from prospective
candidates. To attract good talent there should be strong incentives like
better perks, an allowance equal to the salary, preference for selection to
Tribunal etc,.<br>
<br>
6) Once the Commissioner(Appeals) passes an order, he should have total administrative
control over the officer against whose order the appellate order is passed.
If the order is not implemented, the Commissioner (Appeals) should have power
to punish the lower officer.<br>
<br>
7) No person should be posted as Commissioner (Appeals) in a state in which
he had worked in the preceding three years.<br>
<br>
<b>But the first and foremost step should be to fill up the vacant posts.</b>
Instead of arrears clearance drives, which only produce reports and not realisation,
the department should drive for an adjudication and appeals clearance drive.
To start with for every three hundred pending appeals, post a Commissioner
as Commissioner (Appeals). All the Commissioners from the Commissionerates
can be withdrawn for this job with an assurance that they will get their commissionerates
back after they finish passing these three hundred appellate orders. May be
in six moths we can liquidate the entire pendency of appeals. Adjudication
is the only work of the officers, for which we can see the results –
good or bad. Results of all other work are manipulated and misreported.
For one year let us forget everything and concentrate on adjudication and
appellate orders – at all levels. <br>
<br>
But what will happen to revenue if the officers are busy in adjudication and
not concentrating on revenue realisation, survey, reports and audits? <b>The
FM need not worry; Revenue will come in automatically and Sir, please be don’t
be surprised if there is a huge increase in Revenue.</b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<b>THE BABU</b></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> They contribute
very little, rarely perform any useful function, are arrogant and rude to
the general public, and at the same time subservient and sycophantic to seniors
and their political masters. A civil servant generally creates and lives in
his own make-believe world unrelated to reality - that is why most of them
have a faraway look when you see them - they will not meet you in the eye.<br>
<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><b>From the book, “Journeys Through Babudom and
Netaland” by former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian.<br>
</b></font><br>
<font color="#FF0000"><b>Until tomorrow with more of DDT<br>
<br>
Have a Nice Day<br>
</b></font></font> </p>
</div>
</body>
</html>