Cigarette Manual, tobacco manual - where are they CBEC?
A recent missive from the CBEC to the field officers starts with,
Attention is invited to instructions contained in Chapter - V, section 'C', paragraph 83 of the Cigarette Manual. As per these instructions, the Divisional Assistant/Deputy Commissioner interalia - 'must inspect each cigarette factory in his charge not less than once in each quarter on a working day. Through interrogation of officers and a comprehensive scrutiny of survey books and other records, he must satisfy himself that the relevant provisions of the Act and Tobacco Excise Manual, Supplementary instructions and the Board's and Collector's standing orders are being satisfactorily followed and each officer is performing the duties allotted to him in the preceding chapters of the manual'.
Cigarette Manual - Has anyone seen it lately? Is it still valid?
Interrogation. - And you thought only smugglers and offenders were interrogated!
Survey books-
Does anyone know what this is and does anyone in the department maintain it?
Tobacco Excise Manual-
Excise duty on tobacco was abolished in 1979 and the Board abolished this manual in 1989.
Supplementary instructions- Who is issuing these instructions now?
Now in 2007, when half the departmental officers have no idea about any of the above jargon, Board has realised that the archaic cigarette manual has not prescribed a proforma for interrogation report and they have done it now!
Now is the cigarette manual valid?
Para 2.2 of the CENTRAL EXCISE MANUAL OF CBEC'S INSTRUCTIONS has a reference to it.
2.2 In respect of cigarettes, each invoice shall also be countersigned by the Inspector of Central Excise or the Superintendent of Central Excise before the cigarettes are removed from the factory. If the factory is in operationfor all 24 hours, the officers are rotated/posted for 24 hours. They check the operations of the assessee as per instructions, mutatis mutandis, contained in the Commodity Manual for Cigarettes.
Incidentally, this MANUAL OF CBEC'S INSTRUCTIONS was first published in 2001 with a promise that they will be updated every September. The first update came in 2005 after four years. The second update is yet to come though two Septembers have gone by - of course the standard is four!
Why can't the Board incorporate all the instructions in the new manual or issue a new manual instead of trying to resurrect corpses, whose bones have withered away.
CBEC F.No. 206/03/07-CX-6 Dated: November 07, 2007