TIOL-DDT 2171 · the untouched capture
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<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=17063"><img src="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/image/stories/limca_book2013.jpg" alt="DDT in Limca Book of Records" width="175" height="120" hspace="5" border="0" align="right"></a></font></strong></font></strong></font></strong></font></strong></font></strong></font></strong></font></strong></font></strong></font><font color="#660099" size="3">TIOL-DDT 2171 </font><br>
</strong></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>19.08.2013 <br>
Monday </strong></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>ST-3 form not yet online</strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>VIDE</strong> order No. <strong><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=40&filename=notification/servicetax/2013/order_13_03.htm" target="_blank">3/2013-ST</a> </strong> dated April, 23, 2013, the CBEC had extended the last date of e-filing of Service Tax Return (ST 3) for the period October, 2012 to March, 2013 from 25th April to 31st August, 2013. On 31st July, 2013, the ACES & the CBEC website proudly announced that - <em><font color="#FF6633">"Offline Excel utility for filing half-yearly ST-3 for the period October 2012 to March 2013 available in ACES now ". </font></em> </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">However, it was mentioned that the online version would be made available <strong><em><font color="#FF0000">shortly</font></em></strong>. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We are already into the second half of August 2013 and assessees would be thankful if the online version goes online.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How <strong><em><font color="#FF0000">short</font> </em></strong>is shortly? </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or is the Board going to extend the return filing date? </font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>History of Reserve bank of India </strong></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong> </strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>MONETARY</STRONG> policy is also about reducing hunger and malnutrition, putting children in school, creating jobs, building roads and bridges and increasing the productivity of our farms and firms </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Established in 1935, the Reserve Bank of India is one of the oldest central banks in the developing world. Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh released the fourth volume of the Reserve Bank of India's history at a function held on Saturday in New Delhi. The volume documents the institutional history of the Reserve Bank based on official records, publications and discussions with persons closely associated with the functioning of the Reserve Bank during the period. Published in two parts, Part A and Part B, Volume 4 covers transformation of the Indian economy from restrictions to progressive liberalisation and captures the implementation of structural and financial sector reforms. It thus envelopes the tenures of six Governors - part of Dr.I.G. Patel's tenure to begin with, and covering Dr.Manmohan Singh, Mr. A. Ghosh, Mr.R.N.Malhotra, Mr. S. Venkitaramanan and ending with the tenure of Dr. C. Rangarajan. Interestingly, it includes both, the period between 1982 and 1985 when the Prime Minister himself was the Governor of the Reserve Bank as well as 1991 to 1996 when he was India's Finance Minister. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Does History repeat itself </strong>? In his Welcome Address, the RBI Governor, Dr.SubbaRao said, “In their painstakingly researched book, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart argue that every time a crisis has occurred, experts have been asked why they did not see it coming. Every time, experts have replied that past experience was no guide because the latest crisis is a result of new circumstances. In other words, their standard excuse has been, ‘this time is different'. Yet this ‘this time is different' argument does not hold. Reinhart and Rogoff put forward impressive evidence showing that over eight hundred years, all financial crises can be traced to the same fundamental causes as if we learnt nothing from one crisis to another. The surmise therefore is that, at least in matters of economics and finance, <strong>history repeats itself, not because it is an inherent trait of history, but because we don't learn from history and let the repeat occur</strong>.” </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Does History repeat in RBI </strong>? RBI history documents that about 35 years ago, the Reserve Bank got into a controversy over its auction of gold. Again, in 1991, there was a heated, if also emotional, debate in the country when the Reserve Bank pledged its gold reserves to tide over the balance of payments stress. It will be interesting to conjecture on how history will judge the purchase of 200 MT of gold by the Reserve Bank from the IMF in 2010, and its more recent policies to restrain imports of gold? </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Keep Your Ear to the Ground - one wise Economist to another </strong>: When he was appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank in 2008, Dr.SubbaRao went to call on the Prime Minister before he took charge. A man of few words, the Prime Minister told Rao one thing that stuck in his mind: “<em>Subbarao, you are moving from long experience in the IAS into the Reserve Bank. In the Reserve Bank, one runs the risk of losing touch with the real world. With your mind space fully taken up by issues like interest rates, liquidity traps and monetary policy transmission, it is easy to forget that <strong>monetary policy is also about reducing hunger and malnutrition, putting children in school, creating jobs, building roads and bridges and increasing the productivity of our farms and firms </strong>. Keep your ear to the ground.</em>” </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Prime Minister certainly knows his economics, though we are not really certain about his politics. </font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Valuing Turtle shells as being 50% of value of live Turtles - valuation arrived at by department is without any sound basis </strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>THE</strong> appellant imported through foreign post a<font color="#FF0000"> <strong><em>sample</em></strong></font><strong><em> </em></strong> consignment of <strong>turtle shells </strong> containing 48 pieces. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Inasmuch as since the appellant did not have the requisite permit from the export country in terms of the CITES agreement, to which India is a signatory and the item was a restricted item for importation, the same was absolutely confiscated and a penalty of Rs.25,000/- was imposed on the appellant under the provisions of Section 112(a) of the Customs Act, 1962. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The appellant filed an appeal before the lower appellate authority only to find his appeal dismissed. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Before the CESTAT, the appellant submitted that the cost of the sample itself is only USD 75/- corresponding to Indian Rs.3500/- whereas the adjudicating authority has adopted a value of Rs.1,50,000/- on the basis that the value of live turtles of equivalent weight would come to about Rs.2,75,562/- and, therefore, the value of shells could be taken as 50% of the value of the live turtles. Accordingly, the adjudicating authority had arrived at a value by Rs.1,50,000/- for the consignment under import and which the appellant submits does not stand to any logic or common sense and hence penalty imposed is not sustainable in law. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Bench observed - </font></p>
<blockquote>
<p align="justify"><font color="#660099" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>"5. From the impugned order, it is seen that the department has arrived at the value of the shells on the basis of value of live turtles and have assumed the value to be 50% of the value of live turtles. The department does not seem to have made any efforts to ascertain the value of turtle shells. If turtle shells are tradable items, the department could have easily found out what is the price prevalent in the international market for such turtle shells. In the absence of any such efforts made by the department, the valuation of Rs.1,50,000/- arrived at by the department without any sound basis is not sustainable in law. Therefore, the plea of the appellant that the consignment which they got free-of-cost from the foreign supplier is of value of Rs.3500/- only in the international market has to be accepted. If this is done, the imposition of penalty of Rs. 25,000/- on the appellant cannot be justified. Nevertheless, since the item imported is a restricted item and is prohibited for the purpose of imports into India and is governed by CITES agreement, the appellant needs to be penalized for violating the provisions of law. Accordingly, I reduce the penalty imposed on the appellant to Rs.2500/-." </em></font></p>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The appeal was disposed of in the above terms. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#FF0000" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Incidentally, possessing a turtle shell is considered as harbinger of good luck… true for the appellant, at least. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>See
<a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/caseLawDet.php?QoPmnXyZ=ODk0NzA=" target="_blank"><font size="1">2013-TIOL-1223-CESTAT-MUM
</font></a></strong><font size="1"><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/caseLawDet.php?QoPmnXyZ=ODk0NzA="><strong> </strong></a></font></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>What's making news - 1,000,000,000,000,000 </strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>A</strong> paltry million is the numeral one followed by six zeros. A billion? Nine zeros. A trillion is getting up to 12 zeros. But the mighty quadrillion has 15 of them i.e 1,000,000,000,000,000. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It is mind-boggling. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This number was in the news recently because it is now the national debt of Japan, one quadrillion yen. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Nonetheless, this number is too small than <strong><font color="#FF0000">googol</font> </strong>- yes, that's the actual spelling - you may as well <strong>google </strong> it. So, what is a googol - it is number <strong><font color="#FF0000">one followed by one hundred zeros</font>. </strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How much is a quadrillion? The entire human body is said to have just 100 trillion cells and it takes 10 of us to make a quadrillion </font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, Neil deGrasse Tyson, has offered a few other ways to think about a quadrillion. <em>“It would take you 31 million years to count to a quadrillion - one number per second, never sleeping,” he said, adding that “a quadrillion yen, stacked in 1,000-yen notes, would ascend 70,000 miles high.” </em></font></p>
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/image/stories/ddt_2171_car.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="324" hspace="5" border="0" align="center"></font></strong></font></p>
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em> </em></font><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 align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><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"></font><font color="#660099">Central Excise </font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Non-furnishing of relied upon documents is negligence on part of adjudicating authority and violation of principles of natural justice: HC </strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>THE</strong> case in hand may disclose collusion, or to put it politely, negligence on the part of certain officers. It is rather surprising that an officer of the rank of Additional Commissioner, was not aware that he is required to append all relevant documents with the show cause notice, and if not appended, to provide copies to the noticee within reasonable time, before proceeding to adjudicate the show cause notice. Admittedly, documents were not supplied to the respondent. The negligence does not end here. The appellate authority granted time to the Department to furnish documents to the respondent so that it could reply to the show cause notice but this opportunity also did not elicit any response, compelling the appellate authority to reverse the order passed by the Adjudicating Officer for violation of principles of natural justice. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><strong><font color="#660099" 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 when AO did not allow adjustment of cash seized against advance tax liability even after assessee making specific request, interest u/s 234B is leviable and assessee cannot escape penalty u/s 271AAA - ruled in favour of assessee: ITAT </font></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>ASSESSEE</STRONG> disclosed a sum of Rs. 10 crores during search u/s 132(4) and disclosed in the return of income filed. AO observed that assessee had not paid taxes due on undisclosed income. Assessee contended that default in payment of taxes was due to non acceptance of request of the assessee made before AO to adjust the cash seized against the advance tax liability. Because of non adjustment of seized cash, interest u/s 234B/234C was levied which led to short payment of due taxes and in turn to avail of immunity from penalty proceedings u/s 132(4). AO contended that as per section 132B seized cash could not be adjusted against advance tax liability as the same was not in the nature of ‘existing liability' and proceeded to impose penalty u/s 271AAA. AO further contended that the amount lying in P.D. account could not be treated as payment either on account of self-assessment tax or advance tax. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#660099" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Service Tax </strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><strong><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sending show-cause notice through courier is not an approved mode of service envisaged under Section 37C of Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994 - clear violation of principles of natural justice - Matter remanded to adjudicating authority for service of SCN afresh to appellant and thereafter matter to be adjudicated: CESTAT </font></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>FROM</STRONG> the records, it is evident that the show-cause notice dated 5.6.2009 was sent to the appellant through courier,<em> M/s. Blue Bird Mail Services Pvt. Ltd</em>. Further, another copy of the said notice was sent on 31.5.2010, which was returned undelivered. Sending show-cause notice through courier is not an approved mode of service envisaged under Section 37C of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994. Any summon or notice to the party has to be sent by registered post with acknowledgement due, to the person for whom it is intended or his authorized agent, or by affixing a copy of the same in the business premises of the person or by displaying the same in the notice board of the office which issued the notice. From the records it is seen that none of these modes have been followed by the Revenue. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font color="#663399">See our Columns Tuesday for the judgements</font></strong></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Until Tuesday 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>
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