TIOL-DDT 25 · the untouched capture
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<html> <head> <title>Untitled Document</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#0000FF" size="3">TIOL-DDT 25</font><br> 5 1 2005<br> Wednesday</b></font></p> <p align="center"><b><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What can Customs do when wild animals land up as imported cargo?</font></b></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In spite of all the bad things said about him, it must be admitted that a Customs officer’s life is difficult to say the least. What does he do when wild animals are imported against the law? Seize them; fine but what to do after seizure. We carried a story recently of <b>sea lions being imported by a Russian Circus (See it in our Archive)</b>. The Customs did everything possible, including a few acrobatics in protecting the law but some of them will be in trouble and may be a few are already suspended or transferred. The reason for action against junior officers must be the incompetence of the big bosses of the Board in explaining the situation to activist Maneka Gandhi. DDT learns that no senior officer of the Board was willing to discuss with Ms Maneka Gandhi and she was, like a harried assessee made to go from pillar to post. Quite a serious matter; Somebody has to be punished – pick up a couple of junior officers and that exactly is being done. And Board has an answer to every crisis. Issue a circular and sure enough Board has come out with a circular in this case too. The Board letter issued yesterday wants Chief Commissioners and Commissioners <b>to issue clear instructions not to allow clearance of livestock / livestock products & wild animals without quarantine clearance and deport the same to the country of origin</b>- <a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=25&filename=notification/custom/2004/instruct2.htm">Board’s F.No.450/132/2004-Cus-IV dated 4.1.2005</a></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006633">Filing of Import Manifest before Arrival of the vessel or aircraft - Penalty to be imposed for non- compliance</font></b><br> <br> An important amendment to the Customs Act made by Finance Act 2003 effective from 14 – 5- 2003 went almost un- noticed. As per the old Section 30, the person in charge was required to file an import manifest/report within twenty four hours <b>after</b> arrival in a customs station in the case of vessels and within twelve hours in the case of aircraft or vehicle. In the case of vessel or aircraft this could be filed even before the arrival. There was no penal provision for contravening this section and any violation had to be dealt with under Section 117 which provided for a maximum penalty of ten thousand rupees for contraventions not covered in the other sections.<br> <br> Section 30 was amended by Finance Act 2003 to provide for<br> <br> 1. Filing of the manifest by any other person specified by the Government by notification<br> <br> 2. Mandatory filing of manifest <b>before</b> the arrival of the vessel or aircraft and within twelve hours after arrival in the case of vehicles.<br> <br> 3. A penalty up to fifty thousand rupees for contravention. <br> <br> The Board was not really ready to implement this and it was postponed till May 2004. Obviously even now the Import manifests are not filed before arrival of the vessel and so the Board wants penalty should invariably be administered in cases of failure to file the IGM in advance. The Board letter also suggests an adjudication without a written Show Cause Notice and reply. – <a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=25&filename=notification/custom/2004/instruct1.htm">Board’s F.No.450/118/2004-CusIV dated 31.12.2004.</a> </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br> <font color="#006633"><b>Tsunami Relief Fund from abroad – RBI issues instructions to Banks.</b></font> <br> <br> The Reserve Bank of India has advised banks to strictly follow the instructions regarding relief funds. Ministry of Home Affairs vide Notification No. II/21022/11 (19)2004-FCRA I dated December 30, 2004 has permitted <b>upto 31st March 2005</b> all associations (other than a political party) having a definite cultural , economic, educational , religious or social programme, to accept foreign contribution, in cash and kind, for providing relief to the Tsunami victims without <b>obtaining formal approval of the Central Government.</b> The conditions are:-<br> <br> (a) Each such association would open a new bank account for this purpose;<br> <br> (b) The said account would be designated as the 'Tsunami Relief Account";<br> <br> (c) The association would receive foreign contribution only in the said designated bank account;<br> <br> (d) The association would maintain a separate set of accounts and records in respect of the foreign contribution received in the said designated bank account;<br> <br> (e) The association would submit its particulars in Form FC-IA to the Foreigners Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs within one week of the opening of the said designated bank accounts;<br> <br> (f) The association would make an intimation regarding receipt of foreign contribution in form FC-3 and in form FC-6 in respect of articles, duly certified by a Chartered Accountant, within 4 months of the closure of the year to the Foreigners Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the manner prescribed in the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 1976.<br> <br> <b><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=49&filename=notification/rbi/2004/rbi.htm">RBI/2004-05/327 - DBOD.No. BP.BC. 67/14.01.055/2004-05 dated - January 04, 2005</a></b></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006633">Computers - some more parts exempted(customs)</font></b><br> <br> Printed circuit boards, transformers, SMF battery etc, used in the manufacture of static converters for automatic data processing machines and units thereof exempted by amending notification No 21/2002. - <a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=23&filename=notification/custom/2004/ctariff04_119.htm">Notification No. 119/2004-Cus., dated 31-12-2004</a></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006633">But where is the Tsunami exemption? <br> </font></b><br> When is CBEC coming out with the exemption for goods donated to Tsunami victims? Are they going to issue the notifications after all the materials are released so that there can be a lot of retrospective litigation? <br> <br> <font color="#0000FF"><b>Yeh dil maange more – Pepsi and Board willing. </b></font><br> <br> <font color="#006633"><b>Customs and Excise Department plans to outsource the recovery of uncollected tax</b></font><br> <br> Under the proposal, an agent would be appointed to recover the uncollected tax so that Customs officers would not be tied up in such time-consuming tasks because many of the companies which owed the revenue were difficult to trace. <br> <br> Surprised? This is what the Malaysian Customs is planning to do according to a report in the <b>Star online</b>. Worth emulating in India too. <br> <br> <font color="#FF0000"><b>Until tomorrow with more of DDT<br> <br> Have a Nice Day </b></font></font></p> </body> </html>