Customs Act To Be Amended To Recover Tax Dues.

In a bid to recover taxes running into thousands of crores of rupees, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved an amendment Bill for introduction in Parliament to enable revalidation of show cause notices issued by the Customs authorities after they were held invalid by the Supreme Court on “technical grounds”. The proposed Bill would seek to amend the Customs Act, 1962, so that specified customs officers would be recognised for assessment of import duty with retrospective effect.

Following approval of the amendment Bill, to be introduced in the ensuing monsoon session of Parliament next month, the government would then be able to recover customs duty worth several thousands of crores of rupees, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said.

“Officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) will alone have issued notices involving customs duty to the tune of over Rs.7,500 crore...Also tax evaders will not get benefited at the expense of exchequer on a mere technical ground,” she said.

Over the years, a large number of show cause notices were held invalid by the Supreme Court on the ground that they were not issued by ‘proper officers'.

The proposed amendment, Ms. Soni said, would safeguard government revenue involved in the show cause notices issued by different tax authorities, including Commissionerates of Customs, DRI, Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence and Central Excise Commissionerates.

In another decision, the Cabinet approved merger of State Bank of India Commercial and International Bank Ltd. (SBICI) with its parent bank SBI.

SBICI, with two branches, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Bank of India (SBI) and functions as a private sector bank offering an array of financial products and services.

“It's [SBICI] performance over the period of its existence has not been consistent. It has not paid any dividend since its inception...In the overall analysis, continuation of SBICI in its present form would not create a substantial organisation with a separate niche,” Ms. Soni said.

Source : thehindu.com