GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
CENTRAL BOARD OF EXCISE AND CUSTOMS
Circular No. 1049/37/2016-CX
New Delhi, dated the
29th September, 2016
To,
All principal Chief Commissioners/Chief
Commissioners of Central Excise/Service Tax
Principal Director Generals/Director Generals of Goods & Service
Tax/Systems/Central Excise Intelligence/Audit/Tax Payer Services
Chief Commissioner AR CESTAT
All Principal Commissioners/Commissioners of Central Excise/Service Tax
All Principal Additional Director Generals/Additional Directors Audit
Sub: Revised Monetary Limits for adjudication of Show Cause
Notice in Central Excise and Service Tax-reg.
Madam/ Sir,
Kind attention is invited to the following circulars issued by the
Board regarding adjudication of cases in Central Excise and Service Tax.
In supersession of these circulars and any other circular issued on the
above subject, instructions from paragraph 2 onwards are hereby issued
to revise the existing monetary limits for adjudication and to allow
greater flexibility in allocation of cases amongst adjudicating
authorities.
i) Circular No. 752/68/2003-CX dated
01.10.2003
ii) Circular No. 806/3/2005-CX dated
12.01.2005
iii) Circular No. 865/3/2008-CX dated
19.02.2008
iv) Circular No. 922/12/2010-CX dated
18.05.2010
v) Circular No. 957/18/2011-CX dated
25.10.2011
vi) Circular No. 80/1/2005-ST dated
10.08.2005
vii) Circular No. 99/2/2008-ST dated
11.03.2008
viii)Circular No. 130/12/2010-ST dated
20.09.2010
2. Adjudication of confiscation
and penalty by the Central Excise Officers is provided in Section 33 of
the Central Excise Act, 1944. Central Excise Officers have the power
under Section 11A to adjudicate show cause notices demanding duty short
paid or not paid and erroneously refunded. Similar powers exist in
Service Tax under Section 73 and Section 83A of the Finance Act, 1994
(Notification No. 44/2016-Service Tax dated 28.09.2016 refers). It is
hereby directed that henceforth powers of adjudication both in Central
Excise and Service Tax shall be exercised, based on the monetary limit
of the duty/ tax/ credit involved in a case, as under:-
Sl. No.
|
Central Excise Officer
|
Monetary Limits of duty/
tax/ credit demand for Central Excise and Service Tax
|
1.
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Superintendent
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Not exceeding rupees ten lakh
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2.
|
Deputy/ Assistant Commissioner
|
Above ten lakh but not exceeding
rupees fifty lakh
|
3.
|
Additional/ Joint Commissioner
|
Above fifty lakh but not exceeding
rupees two crore
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4.
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Commissioner
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Without limit i.e. cases
exceeding rupees two crores
|
i) Cases involving taxability,
classification, valuation and extended period of limitation shall be
kept out of the purview of adjudication by Superintendents. Such cases,
upto rupees 10 lakhs, shall also be adjudicated by the Deputy
Commissioner/ Assistant Commissioner in addition to the cases exceeding
rupees 10 lakhs but not exceeding rupees 50 lakh.
ii) The above monetary limits are hereby
prescribed for all categories of cases, except the following:
a) cases of refund (including rebate)
under Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944, as made applicable to
Service Tax cases also under Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994, shall
be adjudicated by the Deputy Commissioner/ Assistant Commissioner
without any monetary limit.
b) cases related to issues mentioned at
Sl. No. (a) and (d) under the first proviso to Section 35B(1) of the
Central Excise Act, 1944 shall be adjudicated in the following manner:
Sl. No.
|
Central Excise Officer
|
Monetary
Limits for Central Excise
|
1.
|
Additional/ Joint Commissioner
|
Exceeding Rs. 50 lakh
|
2.
|
Deputy/ Assistant Commissioner
|
Above Rs. 10 lakh but not exceeding
Rs. 50 lakh
|
3.
|
Superintendent
|
Not exceeding Rs. 10 lakh
|
iii) In case different show cause notices
have been issued on the same issue answerable to different adjudicating
authorities, Show Cause Notices involving the same issue shall be
adjudicated by the adjudicating authority competent to decide the case
involving the highest amount of duty.
iv) Every adjudicating authority of
Central Excise and Service Tax in the field shall endeavour to
adjudicate 100 cases in a year.
3. Further, in view of huge pendency of
adjudication of Service Tax cases at the level of Commissioner, the
Service Tax cases shall be earmarked to Commissioners of Central Excise
and Commissioners (Audit) of Central Excise also, depending upon the
pendency level in the Zone, in the following manner:
a) Central Excise Zones with no
exclusive Service Tax Commissionerate
In such Zones, the Chief Commissioners
shall review the position of Service Tax cases pending for adjudication
at the level of Commissioner, and in exercise of powers conferred under
Section 37A of the CEA, 1944 as made applicable to Service Tax by
Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994, read with notification no.
6/2009-ST dated 30.01.2009, earmark these cases to Commissioners of
Central Excise and Commissioners (Audit) also within their respective
Zones. Orders allocating cases for adjudication would be required to be
issued. Similar exercise can be done on the Central Excise side also by
exercising powers under Section 37A of the CEA, 1944 read with
notification no. 11/2007-CE(NT) dated 01.03.2007.
b) Central Excise Zones having
exclusive Service Tax Commissionerates (namely Ahmedabad, Bangalore,
Hyderabad, Meerut and Pune Zone)
In case of Central Excise Zones having
exclusive Service Tax Commissionerates, the cases may be transferred
within the same Zone from Service Tax Commissionerates to Central Excise
/ Audit Commissionerates. The Chief Commissioner shall exercise powers
conferred under Section 37A of the CEA, 1944 as made applicable to
Service Tax by Section 83 of the Finance Act, 1994, read with
notification no. 6/2009-ST dated 30.01.2009, and earmark these cases to
the Commissioners of Central Excise and Commissioner (Audit) also within
their respective Zones. Orders allocating cases for adjudication would
be required to be issued.
c) Service Tax Zones
In case of exclusive Service Tax Zones,
the cases would have to be transferred across the Zones. The Zonal
Member in-charge of the Zone concerned shall take stock of pending cases
at the Commissioner level, and in exercise of powers conferred to the
Board, earmark these cases to Commissioner (Audit) and Commissioners of
Central Excise across Zones if there is a need to do so. Orders
allocating cases would need to be issued in these cases also. While
issuing such order, powers under Rule 3 of Central Excise Rules, 2002
would also be required to be exercised and specified in the order.
d) It may be noted that the Commissioner
(Audit) had been invested with powers of Central Excise Officer for the
purposes of Audit and issue of Show Cause Notice, vide Notification No.
30/2014- CE (NT) dated 14.10.2014. The said notification has now been
amended vide Notification no 47/2016-Central Excise (N.T.) dated 28th
September, 2016 to invest the Commissioner (Audit) with powers of
adjudication.
4. The above directions shall apply
only to adjudication of cases where the personal hearing is yet to be
commenced. In all cases where the personal hearing has been completed,
orders will be passed by the adjudicating authority before which the
hearing has been held. Such orders should normally be issued within a
month of the date of completion of the personal hearing.
5. Notwithstanding the above
directions, cases which have been remanded back for de novo adjudication
shall be decided by an authority of the rank which passed the said
remanded order.
6. After issue of this circular,
an immediate exercise may be undertaken by the field formations to, take
stock of the present pendency, redistribute them for adjudication and
transfer the relevant files and records to respective adjudicating
authorities. The exercise of transfer of case records should be
completed within a month from the date of issue of this circular and the
recast figures should be reflected in the subsequent Monthly Performance
Report.
7. It may also be noted that the
age-wise pendency of cases as shown in monthly report should be
reflected based on the date of issuance of Show Cause Notice and not on
the basis of transfer of cases to the new adjudicating authority.
8. The Chief Commissioners
concerned are directed to ensure that once the Show Cause Notices
pending for adjudication are re-distributed and re-asssigned, the
pending cases are to be disposed by 31.03.2017. The
Zonal Members, in-charge of respective Zones, may also monitor the
progress of adjudication and ensure that these cases are disposed of
within the prescribed timeline. It may be emphasised that the
performance exhibited by the zones in this area shall form an important
criteria at the time of performance appraisal of the officer concerned.
9. The field formations may be
suitably informed. Difficulty faced, if any, in implementing the
circular should be brought to the notice of the Board. Hindi version
will follow.
(Santosh Kumar
Mishra)
Under Secretary to the Government of India
F. NO. 267/40/2016-CX.8
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