Joint Commissioner = Additional Commissioner: Central Excise adjudication
What about Service Tax?
DDT 809 – 21.02.2008 asked the above question and observed,
As per CBEC Circular No. 752/2003 dated 1.10.2003, Joint Commissioners can adjudicate cases involving duty above Rs. 5 Lakhs and up to Rs. 20 Lakhs. Additional Commissioners can adjudicate cases above 20 Lakhs and up to Rs. 50 Lakhs.
In a Department in which HR planning is totally absent, there seems to be a scarcity of Additional Commissioners and so the 20 to 50 lakhs cases are held up for adjudication.
So now the Board has made the Joint Commissioners equal to the Additional Commissioners. That is Joint Commissioner can adjudicate cases involving duty up to Rs. 50 Lakhs. A Deputy Commissioner who can adjudicate up to Rs. 5 Lakhs, on promotion gets power to adjudicate ten times that amount. Anyway this tinkering does not make much of a difference for the assessee as all these officers work overtime to give the consultants a large number of appeals.
Now the Board wants Commissioners to distribute the adjudication work among their JCs and ADCs and issue necessary corrigendum notices and transfer the relevant files – all within 15 days. 15 days from when? Board has not clarified that. It should be assumed that it would be 15 days from the receipt of the Board Circular by the Commissioners. Many of them will not receive it till another month!
And as usual Board has forgotten that there is a similar circular 80/1/2005- ST, Dated: August 10, 2005 for Service Tax where identical powers are wasted on the JC and Additional Commissioner. Board has not amended that Circular. Hopefully it will come in the next few days.
It took the Board nearly 20 days to realise this mistake after we pointed out the lapse and now they have corrected it. Now in Service Tax also, Joint Commissioners can adjudicate cases up to Rs. 50 Lakhs! A responsive Board is always a responsible Board!
CBEC Circular No. 99/2/2008-Service Tax Dated 11th March, 2008 and Notification No. Dated 11th March, 2008