In the era of self assessment, our main role is to facilitate trade and industry - CBEC Chairman tells Field
IN the context of changes in excise duty rates for precious metal jewellery and ready made garments/made up articles of textiles, in the recent budget, the Chairman CBEC, Mr. Najib Shah, in a D.O. Letter to the Chief Commissioners, said, "in the era of self assessment, our main role is to facilitate trade and industry."
He told the Chief Commissioners:
i. Registration/Centralized Registration once applied for shall be granted within two working days, as per the simplified registration procedure prescribed under Notification No. 35/2001-CE [NT].
ii. There should be no post registration verification of the registered premises. Relevant Notification No. 35/2001-CE [NT] has been suitably amended in this regard
iii. No stock declaration will be required to be made to the jurisdictional central excise authorities by jewellery manufacturers.
iv. To allay any possible apprehensions of the industry, the officers of the department should not visit the premises of these assesses for any routine purposes, like stock verification, verification of records, etc.
v. Officers should continue to facilitate export consignments of these goods, and ensure that under no circumstances the same are held up or delayed on account of the new levy.
vi. As per the Rule 12M of the Central Excise Rules, 2002, jeweller who gets his jewellery manufactured from any other person [like artisans etc.], will have to follow the procedures [such as taking registrations, paying duty and filing returns] and pay duty. In such cases, the levy will not be on the job worker [like artisans etc.)
He has emphasised that there should be no deviation from these instructions.In a welcome change, the Chairman addresses the Chief Commissioners as "Dear Colleague"