While adjudicating refund claims, decide all objections
WHILE disposing of the Central Excise Appeal (L) No. 22 of 2013 filed by OIL & NATURAL GAS CORPORATION LTD against UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS, the Bombay High Court in its order dated 8th October, 2013 () noted that the Tribunal in the course of its judgment came to the conclusion that several relevant aspects which ought to have been adjudicated by the assessing officer were not adjudicated; that it is evident from reading the order of the Tribunal that all the relevant issues have been kept open for adjudication before the Assessing Officer; that there is no adjudication by the Tribunal either for or against the Appellant and in view of this matter, there is no reason to entertain the Appeal.
The High Court further observed -
"4. Before concluding, it is necessary for this court to observe that while adjudicating upon refund claims, it is necessary in the interest of justice for the assessing officers as well as the first appellate authorities to dispose of all the objections. Otherwise, where the assessing officer or as the case may be the first appellate authority deals with only one or more of the objections without dealing with the claim in its entirety, proceedings remain pending for several years thereafter before the Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal. This results in orders of remand in consequence of the failure of the assessing officer or the first appellate authority, as the case may be, to deal with all the aspects of the matter. This prolongs litigation, with several rounds of appeal and remand, which is best avoided both in the interest of the assessee and the revenue. Certainty promotes the rule of law.
5. Hence, we are of the view and direct that the CBEC should issue necessary guidelines in the form of an administrative circular to ensure that assessing officers and first appellate authorities decide all objections to refund claims.”
A copy of the said order was also marked to the Chairman, CBEC.
We reported this order as a Breaking News story on the 16th October, 2013.
Yesterday, the CBEC came out with an Instruction addressed to all the Chief Commissioners, Commissioners, Commissioner (A), CDR et al inviting their attention to the above judgment and the observations made therein.
The Board then says - "The above directions of the Hon'ble Bombay High Court are brought to notice of all concerned for compliance."
If we are not mistaken, the High Court had asked the CBEC to issue guidelines in the form of an administrative Circular.
And if the CBEC is of the view that merely communicating the observations of the High Court would suffice, then what prevented them from doing so all these two months of October and November, 2013.
Probably, they were all busy in finding a recipe for making the ST VCES, 2013 a success!
Instruction F. No. dated December 11, 2013