Perils of limited power to condone delay
WE received this mail from Sri Sanjay Singhal, an Advocate, in response to :
Please refer to your column on TIOL. An exporter had obtained AIR Drawback amounting to about Rs. 3 Lakhs. Upon receipt of SCN for submission of BRC, relevant BRCs were submitted to the department. However, as the departmental officers misplaced the documents, the lower authority confirmed the demand. Subsequently, the exporter filed the appeal after 128 days seeking condonation of delay. When the Commissioner called for the department's report, it was admitted that the exporter had indeed submitted the BRCs and the same have been traced out. However, since the appeal was barred by limitation, the Commissioner dismissed the Appeal. Upon further appeal to RA, the second appeal was also dismissed on grounds of SC judgment in case of Singh Enterprises . Now the exporter has to shell out the amount for no fault of his as he has failed to file Writ against RA Order.
As rightly pointed out by you, such small scale exporters/manufacturers need help by allowing Commissioner Appeals to condone delay in deserving cases.
While we thank the learned advocate for his valuable piece of information, we hope that these instances will ring the right bells in the powers that be, as to how such small mercies on the part of the revenue will go a long way in ensuring "ease of doing business in India" a reality. It is budget time and something needs to be done to address this issue.