Pre-deposit by Non-Assessees - ??
A very senior and respected advocate practicing indirect taxes mailed me:
One of the main problems faced by the Appellants is with regard to the Mandatory Deposit (7.5% or 10% as the case may be) required to be made in terms of Sec 35F of the Central Excise act 1944.
In the case of Appellants who are not Central Excise Assessees from whom duty is demanded for the first time due to a classification dispute or in cases where a penalty is imposed on a person who is not an Assessee, they are not able to deposit the Mandatory Deposit (7.5% or 10% as the case may be) online in a Notified Bank for want of a Head of Account or Accounting code for depositing the said amount.
Earlier this problem was not there, because such deposits were made under TR-6/GAR Challans in a Notified Bank.
Enquires made by the Appellants in different Commissionerates were unable to get any guidance from the Commissionerates concerned, as to how the said deposit is required to be made.
Could you give some guidance or throw some light in the DDT Column which would help the Appellants and the procedure that is required to be followed for making such Mandatory Deposits in Notified Banks?
Alternately would you be good enough to highlight this problem through your column (DDT) in you esteemed website, so that necessary instructions would be given by the CBEC?
He also informed me that no officer in the department from Superintendent to Chief Commissioner was able to offer any solution.
I brought to his notice the provisions in CBEC Circular No. 919/09/2010-CX, dated March 23, 2010 and Circular No. 956/17/2011-CX, dated: September 28, 2011.
(c) Non-Assessee
1. This category of registration is given in ACES to any individual, firm or company which requires to transact with the Central Excise or Service Tax Department, though not an assessee such as
(a) merchant exporter,
(b) co-noticee,
(c) refund applicant,
(d) persons who have failed to obtain CE/ST registration as required under the law and against whom the Department has initiated proceedings and
(e) persons who are required to tender any payment under CE/ST Act /Rules. The Non-Assessees are not required to file any tax returns.
xxx
xxxxx
4. A Non-Assessee registration can also be done by the designated officer of the Commissionerate, on behalf of the Non-Assessee.
The senior advocate wrote back to me:
Thanks for giving me the reference of CBEC Circular dated 23.3.2010, which has been updated on 28.9.2011.
There is a separate Para 3(C) which deals with Non-Assesses.
Though it is complicated to a person who is not familiar with operating and uploading E- Documents through the computer, still it solves the problem.
I am grateful to you for educating me.
I wish the Departmental Officers will also familiarize themselves with the procedure so that they can guide the Assessees and Non- Assessees.
As per the Board Circulars, Non-Assessee registration can also be done by the designated officer of the Commissionerate, on behalf of the Non-Assessee., but the officers in the Commissionerates are not even aware of a concept called Non-Assessee registration. How will they do the registration? How will they assist the assessee? And how will these people administer GST?