How can Assistant Commissioner impose more than 250 rupees penalty?
AS per Section 33 of the Central Excise Act,
SECTION 33. Power of adjudication . - Where under this Act or by the rules made thereunder anything is liable to confiscation or any person is liable to a penalty, such confiscation or penalty may be adjudged - |
(a) without limit, by a Commissioner of Central Excise; |
(b) up to confiscation of goods not exceeding five hundred rupees in value and imposition of penalty not exceeding two hundred and fifty rupees , by an Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise or Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise: |
Provided that the Central Board of Excise and Customs constituted under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963 (54 of 1963), may, in the case of any officer performing the duties of an Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise or Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise, reduce the limits indicated in Clause (b) of this section and may confer on any officer the powers indicated in Clause (a) or (b) of this section. |
As per the above provisions, the Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner can impose a maximum penalty of Rs. 250/-.
How are the Assistant Commissioners imposing huge penalties then?
– 10.07.2015 , asked this question to the Netizens.
Here is the summary of the answers we got. Most of the answers were correct and majority of the answers were from Departmental officers.
The CBEC had clarified this position way back in 1997. In Circular No. , Dated: Feb 27,1997, the Board observed,
By virtue of Clause (a) of Section 33 of Central Excise Act 1944, Commissioners can adjudicate the cases of confiscation and penalty without limit. This power has been delegated to Deputy Commissioners by C.B.R. Notification No. 12 - Cexdt. 17th May 1947, to Assistant Commissioners of Central Excise by C.B.R Notification No. 8-C.Exdt. 2nd September 1944 and to Superintendent of Central Excise by C.B.R. Notification No. 93/59 dt. 28th November 1959.
This archaic Section in the Central Excise Act needs revision. Can you think of confiscating something worth five hundred rupees and imposing a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees?
The identical provision in the Customs Act reads as:
SECTION 122. Adjudication of confiscations and penalties. – In every case under this Chapter in which anything is liable to confiscation or any person is liable to a penalty, such confiscation or penalty may be adjudged, -
(a) without limit, by a Commissioner of Customs or a Joint Commissioner of Customs;
(b) where the value of the goods liable to confiscation does not exceed five lakh rupees, by an Assistant Commissioner of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs;
(c) where the value of the goods liable to confiscation does not exceed, fifty thousand rupees, by a Gazetted Officer of Customs lower in rank than an Assistant Commissioner of Customs or Deputy Commissioner of Customs.
Any idea what happened to the Additional Commissioner?
In Service Tax, it is:
83A Power of adjudication. Where under this Chapter or the rules made thereunder any person is liable to a penalty, such penalty may be adjudged by the Central Excise Officer conferred with such power as the Central Board of Excise and Customs constituted under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963 (54 of 1963), may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify.
Why different statutory positions for the three Statutes under the same Revenue Administration? Board knows!
(Now there is also a Principal Commissioner, which is deleted in the extracts to avoid confusion.)
DDT thanks all the Netizens who have responded. We got the first response a few minutes after DDT was uploaded.