TIOL-DDT 316 · the untouched capture
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<p align="justify" ><font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#663399" size="3">TIOL-DDT
316</font><br>
</b></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>06
03 2006</b><u1:p><br>
</u1:p></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Monday</b></font></p>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>CESTAT
bench at Ahmedabad</b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another
Bench of the Tribunal is to start functioning from Ahmadabad soon. The Tribunal
was formally inaugurated on 11th October, 1982 but keeping in tune with the
retrospective nature of the Revenue department, the notification fixing the
appointed day for starting of the Tribunal from 11th October, 1982 came on 12th
October, 1982 - a day after the inauguration!.</font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
Tribunal which started with its headquarters in New Delhi and zonal benches
at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras had the 5th Bench at Bangalore in 2001. Now the
6th Bench at Ahmadabad is all set to function. The Ahmadabad Bench was long
over due as Gujarat contributes a large chunk of revenue and obviously litigation.
A Bench should have been started in Gujarat long ago. The President deserves
all praise for expanding the Tribunal and taking it nearer to the litigants.
But this expansion should continue. Hyderabad should be the next destination.
With 8 Central Excise Commissionerates and two big custom houses, Andhra Pradesh
deserves to have a bench of the Tribunal. </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=wnew/order.htm">CESTAT
Notification No. 1/2006, dated 3-3-2006</a></u></b></font></p>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Board’s
numbering system goes for another toss – Circular No. 12/2006 issued again</b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
least that you can expect from a premier Revenue collecting Board is arithmetical
accuracy. The Board can never have any authentic statistics on the exact amount
of revenue collected; on the number of Commissioners it has; the number of ranges
or for that matter any numbers. But the least it can do is to keep track of
the numbers of the circulars it issues. It was only last month that we pointed
out that two Central Excise Circulars were issued with the same number 824/1/2006-CX.
dated 6-2-2006 and 824/1/2006-CX., on 16-1-2006. <b><u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=3271">DDT
300 - 10 02 2006</a>. </u></b>It could have been a mistake. But now they have
done it again. Customs Circular No. 12/2006 is issued twice. We had covered
the first 12/2006 dated 20.2.2006 which was about disposal of seized goods.
- . <b><u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=3317">DDT
307 - 21 02 2006</a>. </u></b>Now the Board has issued another Circular 12/2006
dated 28.02.2006 which deals about classification of optical fibre. In this
circular, Board has clarified that optical fibre cables of heading 8544 are
made up of individually sheathed fibres whereas cables of heading 9001 are not
individually sheathed. Board notes that importers may mis-declare optical fibre
of 9001 under 8544 to avail lower rate of duty and wants field formations to
be alert to this modus operandi. It is unfortunate that Board is so casual about
the whole affair of collecting a couple of lakhs of Crores that they don’t keep
track of the circulars they issue. </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=25&filename=notification/custom/2006/cuscir06_12A.htm">CIRCULAR
NO . 12/2006-Cus, Dated : February 28, 2006</a></u></b></font></p>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Idli
Dosa is not fully exempted after all</b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
budget has been termed as an idli dosa budget (perhaps without chutney). The
explanatory notes to the budget stated that idli dosa mix is being exempted
but if you referred the relevant notification, you would understand that they
were taxed at 8%. Now which one do you believe – the notes or the notification?
Fortunately Board clarifies that the notification is right and not the notes.
</font></p>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Bakeries
spared from excise onslaught</b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Immediately
after the budget a few former colleagues called up. Pastry and biscuits are
now not exempted and they are not even covered under the SSI exemption. So does
every street corner bakery become a factory liable to pay excise duty? Should
we attack? One bright lady inspector remarked, “the bakery shops may not be
manufacturing cakes and biscuits, they may be only selling them; so we should
go to the places where they are baked and not the shops where they are sold”.
But she had a brighter solution. “the icing on the cake amounts to manufacture
and normally the icing is done in the shop; so we can collect duty from the
shops”. Even we in <b>TIOL</b> spent hours in compiling a list of items omitted
from the SSI list. Mercifully before the excise sleuths landed up in these shops,
Board gave a clarification that these are indeed included in the SSI notification.
They clarified that instead of chapter 9 given in the list of goods eligible
for SSI benefit, chapter 9 to 20 should be included. </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Keeping
with the latest ostrich tendency, Board has given these clarifications in a
private letter addressed to Chief Commissioners and Commissioners while the
notes and notifications are widely published. It took all our resources to get
a copy of the corrigendum. Why is it that the Board commits blunders in public
and rectifies them in private? Why couldn’t this corrigendum be given wide
publicity? If they had any sense of responsibility, they should have given full
page ads in newspapers informing the people about this corrigendum. When they
give daily ads about paying duty, can’t they publicize important corrections?
In any case we are ready to do it free, but somehow the government is shy to
share information. </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Board’s
<a
href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=23&filename=notification/custom/2006/trucorrig.htm">F.No.
334/3/2006 dated 28th February 2006</a></b></font></p>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Land
mark Supreme Court judgement </b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The
Supreme Court of India held that</font></p>
<ul>
<li> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">· Company officers
can be prosecuted</font></li>
<li> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">· Punishment
includes penalty</font></li>
<li> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">· adjudication
permissible for offences</font></li>
<li> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">· Prosecution
need not wait for adjudication</font></li>
<li> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">· prosecution
can continue even if adjudication fails</font></li>
<li> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">· adjudication
and prosecution are independent proceedings </font></li></ul>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" align="justify"><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=3408"><strong>See
our breaking news today for more details.</strong></a></font>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Central
Excise mentality is not suited for Service Tax – former FM </b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"Now
central excise officials deal in service tax. But the mentality of a central
excise officer and service tax official should be different," the former
finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, suggested during an interactive session on
the Union budget with the members of Bharat Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata.
Sinha pointed out that during NDA regime it was proposed that once the service
tax achieved a critical mass then a separate set of law and cadre would be created
for the tax administration and collection. Sinha said that he was going to raise
this issue in the next meeting of the Parliamentary standing committee on finance.
"This year the projection for service tax collection is around Rs 23,000
crore, which I feel is good enough to start the move. This is the high time
because even a few years back the income tax collection was at the same level
where service tax now stands," he said. </font></p>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Anti
dumping duty on POY extended</b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Anti-dumping
duty on partially oriented yarn of polyester (POY), originating in, or exported
from Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia – Extended – </b>The Designated
Authority has reviewed the Anti-dumping duty imposed under Notification No.
15/2002-Cus which was to expire on 11th April, 2007. The authority has recommended
extension of the duty for one more year and so the government has extended it
till 11th April 2007 </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=23&filename=notification/custom/2006/ctariff06_022.htm"><strong>Notification
No. 22/2006-Cus., dated 2-3-2006</strong></a></u></font></p>
<p align="center" ><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Greek
and Latin - DDT's new feature</b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>locus
classicus </b>– an authoritative and often-quoted passage. </font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This
phrase was used inn the Supreme Court order we carried on Saturday -<font size="1">
<a
href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=42&filename=legal/sc/2006/2006-TIOL-15-SC-CT-LB.htm"><font size="2"><strong>2006-TIOL-15-SC-CT-LB</strong></font></a>.
</font></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Any
decision even a <i>locus-classicus</i> is an authority for what it decides.
It is impermissible to extend the ratio of a decision of a case involving identical
situations factual and legal without a close examination of the rationale of
the decision which is cited as precedent. – Moheb Ali in <u><a href="http://www.taxindiaonline.com/RC2/subCatDesc.php3?subCatDisp_Id=52&filename=legal/cestat/2004/2004-TIOL-1102-CESTAT-MUM.htm"><strong>2004-TIOL-1102-CESTAT-MUM</strong></a></u>
(incidentally this is a very interesting judgement that you should read)</font></p>
<p align="left" ><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#663399">"The
Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep
under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." </font></b><font color="#FF6666">-
-- </font><b>Anatole France</b><font color="#FF6666"> </font></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Until
tomorrow with more DDT and the budget</b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Have
a nice day. </b></font></p>
<p align="justify" ><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Mail
your comments to</b></font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<a
href="mailto:vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com"><b>vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com</b></a></font></p>
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