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Central Excise
Reference application – High Court has no power to condone delay : Supreme Court
The Supreme Court noted that under the Central Excise Act,
1. Under section 35 there is a provision for condonation of delay by the Commissioner (Appeals)
2. Under Section 35 C (5), the CESTAT can condone delay in filing the appeal.
3. No such provision exists for appeal or reference to the High Court. In other words, the legislative intent is clear that the Parliament never intended that delay in filing the reference application under Section 35- H could be condoned.
4. Above being the position, the High Court was justified in holding that there was no power for condonation of delay in filing reference application.
NE Exemption - excise
Exemption cannot be denied for depositing duty amounts in interest-bearing account - Senior revenue officials are expected to interpret notification intended to further developmental interest of a region in more pragmatic and liberal way : CESTAT
THE dispute concerns interpretation of exemption Notification No.8/04-CE dated 21.01.04 as amended by Notification No.28/04-CE dated 09.07.04, the benefit of which has been claimed by the appellants and which has been denied by the Adjudicating Commissioner. The Notification in question provides a detailed mechanism under which tobacco products manufactured in the North-East Region are exempted provided an amount equal to the duty is deposited in an Escrow Account, which is required to be invested in the North-East Region comprising of states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
The appellants admittedly deposited the necessary amount in the Escrow Account, but have fallen foul with the departmental authorities for reasons such as, no separate accounts were opened in respect of units falling in different states; no tripartite agreement was signed before opening the Account; and further, they asked the bank to transfer part of the money from the Escrow Account so that some interest can be earned on the money lying idle with the bank otherwise. The Commissioner has confirmed duty demands of over Rs. 50 Crores with equal penalty.
Service Tax
Rental space for keeping, storing, stuffing or consolidation of export cargo into containers – Services prima facie not liable to Tax under Storage and Warehousing Services: Tribunal
MERELY because an activity is excluded from being charged to Service Tax under a particular category does not imply that the activity is not taxable under some other category – this is the Departmental way of looking at things - inwardly that is!
Although section 65(23) excludes from its ambit “handling of export cargo”, it is the department's contention that the same cannot mean to say that the said activity is not taxable inasmuch as it can be very well be held to be taxable under the category defined in 65(102).
The aforesaid quagmire came up before the Tribunal recently – of course in an appeal by the assessee.
Income Tax
Deduction under Sec 80HHC in a case of MAT assessment is to be worked out on basis of adjusted book profit under Sec 115JA : ITAT
(Ground No. 5 and 6) against the order of the CIT (A) in directing the AO to allow deduction under section 80HHC of the Income Tax Act, 1961, while computing the book profit on the basis of profit disclosed in the Profit Loss Account after making adjustments, though clause (viii) of Explanation to section 115JA prescribes deduction under section 80HHC to be computed under clause (a) (b) or (c) of sub-section (3A) of section 80HHC.
Contending parties conceded that this issue now stands covered against the revenue by the Special Bench decision of the Tribunal in the case of DCIT vs. Syncome Formulations (I) Ltd., wherein the Tribunal held that deduction under section 80HHC in a case of MAT assessment is to be worked out on the basis of adjusted book profit under section 115JA and not on the basis of profit computed under regular provisions of law applicable to computation of profit and gains of business or profession. Hence the appeal by the revenue on this ground fails and it is dismissed