Jurisprudentiol - Wednesday's cases

By Vijay Kumar

Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Customs

Where Baggage Declaration Form is not filed, jurisdiction under Section 127B(1) of Customs Act cannot be exercised by Settlement Commission - application rightly rejected - WP dismissed: HC

THE Settlement Commission dismissed the application on the ground that the petitioner did not satisfy the condition precedent for entertaining the settlement application as provided under the proviso (a) to Section 127 (B)(1) of the said Act. Inasmuch as the Baggage Declaration Form required to be filed under Section 77 was not filed by the applicant.

Income Tax

Whether when warrant is issued against address of assessee but without name, invocation of provisions of Sec 158BC instead of Sec 158BD will be illegal - YES: HC

THE issues before the Bench are - Whether when a warrant is issued against the address of the assessee but without a name, invocation the provisions of Sec 158BC instead of Sec 158BD will be illegal; Whether even without a search warrant u/s 132 of the Act against the assessee, the block assessment u/s 158BC can be said to be valid and sustainable without invoking section 158BD; Whether the failure to issue notice u/s 158BD of the Act to the assessee is only an irregularity in the assessment and not a nullity of the block assessment; Whether the provisions of Section 292B of the Act can be invoked to cure the defect in not issuing notice to the assessee u/s 158BD of the Act and hence the block assessment on the assessee u/s 158BC can be said to be legal and valid in law and Whether the addition u/s 68 of the Act in respect of the cash credits can be made in the block assessment made under Chapter XIVB of the Act. And the verdict goes in favour of the assessee.

Service Tax

Appellant located in SEZ area discharging ST liability u/s 66A of FA, 1994 and claiming refund - If Board is of view that S. 66A is not charging section by itself and charging section remains 66, taking holistic approach, denial of refund claim to appellant only on hyper technicalities, seems to be incorrect - Stay granted: CESTAT

THE Appellant paid Service Tax as mandated by s. 66A of the FA, 1994 on the Commission paid to the agents who are staying abroad.

Since they are located in SEZ area, they claimed the refund of the ST paid in terms of Notification No.9/2009-ST dated 03.03.2009, which was allowed by the adjudicating authority.

On an appeal filed by the Revenue, the first appellate authority, concluded that the said Notification No.9/2009-ST grants refund of the amount of service tax utilised in SEZ area, if the same is paid under Section 66 of the Finance Act, 1994, while the appellant herein has paid the service tax under Section 66A of the Finance Act, 1994.

See our Columns Tomorrow for the judgements