Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Excise & Customs
Circular No.969/03/2013-CX
New Delhi, dated 11th
April, 2013
To,
- All Chief Commissioners and Director Generals under the Central Board of
Excise and Customs.
- All Authorized Representatives of Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate
Tribunal.
- All Commissioners of Customs / Central Excise/ Service Tax / All Joint Chief
Departmental Representatives
- Joint Secretary (Admn), CBEC, Joint Secretary (Revenue-HQ), D/Revenue.
- Registrar, CESTAT, New Delhi, Deputy/Assistant Registrar,CESTAT, Mumbai,
Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore & Kolkata.
- <[email protected]>
Sub:- Amendment to CESTAT Appeal Forms – reg..
Sir / Madam,
The Board has decided to amend/revise the forms for filing appeal in the CESTAT.
Accordingly, new forms for Central Excise (E.A.-3, E.A.-4, E.A.-5), Customs
(C.A.-3, C.A.-4, C.A.-5) and Service Tax (S.T.-5, S.T.-6, S.T.-7) have been
notified vide Notification Nos 6/2013-Central Excise (N.T.), 37/2013-Customs
(N.T.) and 5/2013-Service Tax, all dated 10.04.2013 respectively. These forms
have been made effective from 1.6 2013. Therefore, all appeals filed in the
Tribunal on or after 1.6.2013 would be in the new form being prescribed.
- The new forms are expected to ensure quick disposal of cases. Additional
information sought would lead to faster communication between the Tribunal
Registry and the appellant, bunching of cases and would also facilitate creation
of a comprehensive database.
- Salient features of the changes introduced in the new appeal forms are as
under-
- Presently appeal against the orders passed by Commissioner (Appeals) under
sub-section (2) of Section 35 B of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and sub-section
(2) of Section 129A of the Customs Act, 1962 are being filed in E.A.-3 and
C.A.-3 forms respectively by the department. These forms are also used for
filing appeals by the party. Similarly, E.A.-5 and C.A.-5 forms are being used
for filing departmental applications against Order-in-Original of Commissioner
on the strength of order of the Committee of Chief Commissioner under
sub-section (1) of Section 35E of the CEA, 1944 and sub-section (1) of Section
129D of the Customs Act, 1962. While in the Service tax matter, appeals are
filed under Section 86 (2) and Section 86 (2A) of the Finance Act, 1994 against
orders passed by the Commissioner and Commissioner (Appeals) respectively in a
single form S.T.-7. Therefore, to align the forms for filing appeals with that
of Service Tax, in the new appeal forms, the appeal against order passed by
Commissioner (Appeals) in Central Excise and Customs matter are to be filed in
the new E.A.-5 and C.A.-5 forms along with appeal against orders passed by the
Commissioner.
- Separate fields have been provided in the new forms seeking details of Assessee Code (PAN based registration number), Location Code (Commissionerate /
Division / Range identifier), PAN or UID where PAN is not available. Apart from
this, e-mail address, telephone number and fax number of the assessee is also
being sought in the new forms. These new fields are intended to facilitate quick
communication between the Tribunal Registry and the Appellant and would help in
identifying the location code of the assessee in case of shifting of the unit or
re-organization of the jurisdiction under which the unit existed earlier. In
such cases, the Tribunal Registry was not able to reach to the assessee for
service of notices and delivery of orders. Location Codes can be obtained from
websites http://cbec.nsdl.com and www.aces.gov.in
- In appeal forms for Customs, IEC (Importer Exporter Code) is to be
furnished mandatorily by the Appellant along with the Port Code so as to
identify the Port from which the import or export has taken place. These Port
Codes are available on ICEGATE.
- In Service Tax forms, a separate field for Premises Code is being
introduced for identification of the jurisdictional Commissionerate / Division /
Range.
- PAN is required to be furnished by the Appellants. In case where PAN is not
available and the Appellant is having UID, the same is required to be furnished.
This would help in identification / location of persons who are not registered
with the Department but are charged with penalty etc.
- It has been decided to introduce a 21 string alphanumeric number along
with the date of the Order against which appeal is being filed. All the 140
existing Commissionerates have been assigned pre-figured series and serial
numbers have to be filled in for the orders passed by the Commissioner or
Commissioner (Appeal) or Commissioner (Adjudication), as the case may be. Some
examples of the alpha-numeric series are as below-
“AHM-CUSTM-000-COM-034-12-13 DT 02-09-2012. This would mean Order-in-Original
No.34 for the year 12-13 passed by Commissioner of Customs, Ahmadabad.”
In case of Commissioner (Appeals), the alpha numeric number would consist of APP
in place of COM. For example-
“AHM-CUSTM-000-APP-034-12-13 DT 02-09-2012. This would mean Order-in-Appeal
No.34 for the year 12-13 passed by Commissioner of Customs (Appeals),
Ahmadabad.”
To illustrate, first three letters denote the city where the Commissionerate
office of the Adjudicating authority is located.
The next 5 alpha string denotes the nature of the Commissionerate i.e. ‘CUSTM’
for exclusive Customs Commissionerates, ‘EXCUS’ for combined Commissionerates of
Excise, Service Tax & Customs, ‘SVTAX’ for exclusive Service Tax
Commissionerates and ‘LTUNT’ for LTU Commissionerates. This part of the code is
for the Commissionerate, and NOT for the subject matter of the impugned order.
Thus, even if the impugned order passed by (or relating to), say, a Central
Excise Commissionerate relates to Customs or Service Tax matters, the second
part of the code would still read as EXCUS. This is necessary for achieving the
desired purpose of Commissionerate-wise indexing of appeals.
The next three numeric strings denote the specific Commissionerate where the
first eight strings are not sufficient to identify the Commissionerate. In cases
where the first two parts suffice to identify the Commissionerate, this third
part will simply be three zeroes, i.e. “000”. For example, the code of Ahmedabad
Customs Commissionerate would be AHM-CUSTM-000. The code of Allahabad Central
Excise Commissionerate would be ALD-EXCUS-000. The reason why 000 has to be kept
in the third part even for such Commissionerates is because no field can be left
blank in the string. In respect of places having more than one Central Excise
Commissionerates, the third part will be 001, 002, 003 and so on. In respect of
Commissioner (Adj), this part will be ‘ADJ’. In respect of Customs (Preventive)
Commissionerates, the third part will be PRV. In respect of Customs
Commissionerates in Chennai/Delhi/Mumbai, the codes given in the third part
suitably capture the nature of the Commissionerate. For example, CHN-CUSTM-SXP
refers to Chennai Customs Sea (Export) Commissionerate (the ‘S’ in the 3rd part
is for Sea and the XP is for Export). Similarly, in the code DLI-CUSTM-AGN for
the Delhi [Airport, ACC (Import) and (General) Commissionerate], the third part
AGN means ‘A’ for Airport and ‘GN’ for General.
Thus, to recapitulate, the first three parts (11-characters long) of the
proposed numbering system will uniquely identify the Commissionerate of the
adjudicating authority. The next three alpha strings denote the officer who is
adjudicating the case. COM would denote Order in Original passed by the
Commissioner, APP would denote order in appeal passed by the Commissioner
(Appeal) and ADJ would mean order in original passed by the Commissioner
(Adjudication).
The next three numeric strings is meant for serial number of the order to be
assigned by the office of the Commissioner who is passing the order.
The next four numeric strings would denote the financial year in which the order
was passed.
The last 8 empty boxes in the string are meant for the date and year of the
order passed.
- Separate entries are being provided in the revised form for demand of
duty, fine, penalty and interest.
- In order to facilitate bunching of identical issues separate entry has
been provided with subject codes which are being appended to the forms. The
Appellant would be required to tick mark the subject in dispute. For example, in
a Customs Appeal, Sl. No.16 requires the appellant to choose from the list given
under three separate heads of “Import”, or “Export”, or “General” depending upon
the nature of the case.
- The above changes may be taken note of by the field formations as well as
trade for proper usage of the new forms from 1.6.2013. However, the old forms
may continue to be used for a period of three months from the date of coming
into effect of the new forms, i.e. till 31.08.2013. From 01.09.2013 onwards, no
appeal shall be filed in the old forms.
- Wide publicity may be given to the new form for the benefit of trade and
industry.
- The pre-figured alpha numeric numbers for all the 139 Commissionerates and
8 Commissioners (Adjudication) are being uploaded on the websites -
http://www.cbec.gov.in under Legal Affairs and http://www.cdrcestat.gov.in
- Hindi version follows.
(Sunil K. Sinha)
Director (Judicial Cell)
F.No.390/Misc./46/2011-JC