What's this new Tariff all about?

By Vijay Kumar

Taxindiaonline does it again- we are the first source for the new Tariff.

While the rest of the country was busy celebrating Excise Day, the poor boys in our notification factory in the North Block were busy manufacturing nine notifications to put into effect the new excise tariff, while the tariff itself was most elusive. The new Tariff is effective from today and while there was frantic search for the new tariff all over the country and nobody seems to have seen it or had a clue where to get it, your Taxindiaonline, as usual brings you the whole tariff 'our exclusive scoop' of far more importance than our scoop on the ITC case or the AP Paper Mills case. As said earlier, it costs us pretty lot of money to upload these laws on the site and make them available for downloading, but still we have chosen to make the entire tariff available on our site in the free section as a service to our esteemed netizens and as a part of our mission of taking the Government closer to the people.

But what is all this hangama about? My mail box has been filled with mails from anxious assessees and officers wanting to know what changes have been brought about and as to what are its effects. "Is it an ordinance like the ITC ordinance?" an anxious assessee asked me.

Here's the whole story.

The origin of excise levy in India can be traced to the days of the Mauryan Empire around 300-400 B. C. when a tax on manufactured goods was known to have been imposed. In modern times, the first Tariff Act might be the Indian Salt Act, 1882, which came four years after the Sea Customs Act, 1878. Excise duty spread with Cotton yarn of finer counts -1894, Fine Cloth -1896, Motor Spirit -1917, Kerosene -1922 and Silver articles -1930. By 1943, there were at least ten different enactments on excise levy, excluding five statutes dealing exclusively with salt. And in 1944, the comprehensive Central Excise Act, 1944 was brought in which had a tariff as a schedule to the Act. And this continued till 1986, when the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 was introduced based on the HSN system. Meanwhile, the Customs Tariff was also undergoing changes and the Central Excise Tariff was being constantly aligned with the Customs Tariff. The 8 digit tariff became fashionable for Customs and all other transactions and it was only a matter of time before the Central Excise Tariff also became an 8 digit one in tune with the Customs Tariff.

The Central Excise Tariff (Amendment) Bill 2003 was prepared for this. The Bill finally introduced as the Central Excise Tariff (Amendment) Bill 2004 was passed by both the Houses of Parliament and recently received the assent of the President and it is now law as the Central Excise Tariff (Amendment) Act 2004 (5 of 2005).

This new Amendment Act substitutes the First and Second Schedules to the Central Excise Tariff Act with new 8 digit schedules. And these changes have come into force from today. The six digit tariff had a classification of headings and sub headings based on a single dash (-) and double dash (--). Now there is a third dash (---).

The six digit Tariff had a system of single dash (-) and double (--) to sub-classify the headings. Now the 8 digit tariff has a triple dash scheme. If the description of the articles is preceded by a single dash, it means that it is a sub classification of the immediately preceding heading. If there is double dash or triple dash before a description, it means that it is a sub classification of the immediately preceding item which has either a single dash or double dash. The new scheme is like this:-

(1).

(a) "heading", in respect of goods, means a description in list of tariff provisions accompanied by a four-digit number and includes all sub-headings of tariff items the first four-digits of which correspond to that number;

(b) "sub-heading", in respect of goods, means a description in the list of tariff provisions accompanied by a six-digit number and includes all tariff items the first six-digits of which correspond to that number;

(c) "tariff item" means a description of goods in the list of tariff provisions accompanying either eight-digit number and the rate of the duty of excise or eight digit number with blank in the column of the rate of duty;

(2) the list of tariff provisions is divided into Sections, Chapters and Sub- Chapters;

(3) in column (3), the standard unit of quantity is specified for each tariff item to facilitate the collection, comparison and analysis of trade statistics.

The amended Act gives the power to the Government to change the Tariff by notification. The new Tariff is completely aligned with the Customs Tariff, in as much as non-excisable goods also figure in the new Tariff. But fortunately the Government has taken care to see that there is no duty on them. So you can't really demand excise duty on adult bulls, buffaloes and asses. In the old Central Excise Tariff, Chapter 1, 6, 10, 12 and 77 were blank. Chapter 1 is Live Animals, 6 is Live Trees, 10 is cereals 12 is oil seeds and 77 is blank in the Customs Tariff. These as is well known cannot be excisable. So even though these chapters have also been included in the new Central Excise Tariff, there is no rate of duty shown against the items in these chapters which would mean that they are not dutiable.

Electricity under 2716 00 00 which had a place in the Bill, is thankfully absent in the Act which means it is confirmed that it is not excisable and I am personally happy that my suggestion has been accepted. Chapter 77 which is blank in the Customs Tariff is left blank in the Central Excise Tariff too. The old Excise Tariff had only 96 chapters while the Customs Tariff has 98 chapters. Chapter 97 deals with works of art, paintings etc and Chapter 98 deals with project imports, passenger baggage, and personal imports, hardly items to be figuring in the excise Tariff. So the Government has wisely left these two chapters blank in the new excise tariff.

Obviously the government has done a good job, but they could have certainly done it more openly and in a much slower pace. There was no point in confusing all the assessees and the departmental officers with this new tariff on the day of the Budget and that too without making the tariff available.

Well, today is already past tense; the Budget 2005 is here, Log on to Taxindiaonline for the latest.