TIOL-DDT 587 · the untouched capture
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Untitled Document</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> <body> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#663399" size="3">TIOL-DDT 587</font><br> 05.04.2007<br> Thursday</b></font></p> <p align=center><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006600">Duty free import of Wheat - withdrawn – Not really – Reintroduced</font></b></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As per Notification No. 21/2002-Cus., dated 1.3.2002, import of wheat is exempted from Customs Duty. This is covered under Sl. No. 18A of the Table to the Notification. As per proviso (h) to the Notification, this exemption is not applicable after 1.3.2007. Means the exemption has lapsed. Obviously somebody in the Board forgot about this sunset clause. But obviously wheat has to be imported duty free. But how to go about it? There are two ways </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(1) The clause (h) of the proviso says that nothing in the Notification shall apply to goods specified against Sl. No. 18A of the Table on or after the <b>1<sup>st</sup>March, 2007</b>. This 1<sup>st</sup>March, 2007 could have been amended to read as 1<sup>st</sup> January, 2008. But that would have been too simple. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(2) The clause (h) of the proviso and Sl. No. 18 could be deleted and a new clause (iab) and a new Sl. No. 18AA could be inserted with the same words as the deleted clause and the Sl. No. except for changing 1<sup>st</sup>March, 2007 to 1<sup>st</sup> January, 2008.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> And as usual the Board has adopted the second way.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So, wheat, after all can be imported without payment of duty till the end of the year, but God forbid, if there were any imports during the Month of March 2007, they are destined to suffer duty.</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/2007/ctariff07_052.htm" target="_blank">Notification No. 52/2007-Customs, dated March 30, 2007</a></u></font></p> <p align=center><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006600">Cement Exemption – The Notification is made available</font></b></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>DDT</b> Yesterday reported about the exemption given for import of cement and the fact that the Notification was not available. It is now available. The Notification exempts Cement from Additional duty (CVD). But the cement industry is in no mood to reduce prices. Is duty free import the answer? </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/2007/ctariff07_053.htm" target="_blank">Notification No. 53/2007-Customs, dated April 3, 2007</a></u></font></p> <p align=center><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006600">Service Tax abatement – tour operators</font></b></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Government has issued Notification No.15/2007-Service Tax dated 04.04.07 under section 11C of the Central Excise Act, exempting levy of service tax, for the period from 01.04.2000 to 04.02.04, on 60% of the gross amount charged for taxable services provided by tour operators, operating under a contract carriage permit issued by the appropriate transport authority, for transport of passengers from one place to another (other than services provided in relation to package tours).<br> <br> Representations were received from transport operators / bus owners operating regular point to point transport of passengers between different cities or towns under contract carriage permit issued by the appropriate transport authority that they had been asked to pay service tax on 100% of the gross amount charged by them with effect from 01.04.2000, whereas service tax should be charged only on the commission earned. Notification No.2/2004- ST dated 05.02.04 was issued prescribing abatement of 90% from gross value in respect of taxable service other than packaged tours. Abatement of 60% from gross value has been available since 09.07.04 vide notification No.8/2004-Service Tax dated 09.07.04.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Government has decided to extend the benefit of abatement of 60% from gross value in respect of the above mentioned taxable services to the past period also i.e. from 01.04.2000 to 04.02.04.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But where is the notification? Getting the notification printed and published in the Gazette is not as easy as manufacturing a notification in the North Block. Government usually finds the Mayapuri press too busy to print its notifications. In any case nobody ever sees the Gazette. Sometime back a High Court judge asked me to produce a copy of the gazette for a notification. I submitted to his Lordship that it is impossible! Government is so much tied up in the bureaucratic red tape that it is not able to make its own notifications public. But why can’t they enclose a copy of the notification when they give press releases? Simple, by that time the notification is not printed and so legally not valid! It’s all back dated administration! </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We came to know about this notification through the PIB! </font></p> <p align=center><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006600">New ST 3 Return – Netizens comment </font></b></font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>It’s not two holes after all! </b></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">PrakashSarsubhedar wrote to us,</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In the ST-3 form they asked the information about STC No, & Premises code, in clause 2B & 2C respectively, This two code as per the department appears in Registration certificate, however most of the registration certificates are only appearing Registration number & not this two codes, however in Revised ST-3 return there is no column for Registration number. Under the circumstance whereassesseeshould mention the Registration number? & Whether authority will accept the Return without above two codes ??? </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And Jivan adds,</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It may be advised in this regard that, as far as possible, formats should be devised in a such a way thatinstead ofscrapping the format altogether,CBEC shouldadd a page or two, depending upon the requirement, toan existing format so as togather the requiredadditional information. If changes are implemented this way, retaining the existing printed stationery,new pages can be get printed separately and added to the returns. Alternatively, filling of e-returns should be promoted.</font></p> <p align=center><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><font color="#006600">TIOL’s</font></b><font color="#006600"><b> Seminar in Vizag</b></font></font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tax Law Research Group, in association with TIOL is organising a seminar in Vizag on Staurday. Mr. Gautam Bhattacharya, the affable Service Tax Commissioner in the Board is the main speaker. Some of the top writers in the TIOL portal like Jai Kumar, GP Sastry, Raghavendra Rao, JM Kishore, DBB Sharma besides the Managing Editor and Editor In Chief of TIOL will be there in Vizag to discuss, analyse and probably find solutions to the many thorny problems in the tax front. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you are anywhere near Vizag, don’t miss this seminar.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It’s a long weekend</font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Until Monday with more DDT </font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Have a nice day. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF6666" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mail your comments to</font> <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com">vijaywrite@taxindiaonline.com</a></font></p> </body> </html>