Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Excise & Customs)
New Delhi, dated the 14th January, 2011.
To,
All Director Generals,
All Chief Commissioners of Central Excise (including LTU),
All Commissioners of Central Excise (including LTU).
Sir/ Madam,
Subject: Enforcement of penal provisions for non-submission of returns-reg.
Under Central Excise Law, the assessee is required to file different categories
of returns depending on its applicability to them. Some of them are monthly
viz.ER-1, ER-2 and ER-6, some are quarterly viz. ER-3 and some others are yearly
viz. ER-4, ER-5 and ER-7. Central Excise Law envisages self-assessment of duty
by the assessee and filing of the prescribed returns periodically, so that
department is kept informed about the assessment and duty payment by the
assessee. Fundamental ingredient of this trust based scheme, is the regular
filing of returns by the assessee. These returns enable the department to verify
the duty payment, cenvat credit taken and other such parameters related to
assessment.
- It has been brought to the notice of the Board, that many assessees are not
filing the returns at all and some others are submitting the same after long
delays. This problem has been found to be more pronounced in the case of
specialized returns like ER-5, ER-6 and ER-7. It has also been brought to the
notice of Board that the field formations do not identify the defaulters and
take necessary follow up action to ensure submission of these returns.
2.1 It is stated that scrutiny of returns is the essential and basic job of the
Central Excise Ranges in the field formations. Scrutiny includes identifying the
assessees who have not submitted the prescribed returns, and taking follow-up
action to ensure that these returns are filed at prescribed periodicity. In this
regards, it is also pointed out that penalty under Rule 27 of Central Excise
Rules, 2002 and Rule 15A of CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 can be invoked against
such errant assessees.
- In view of above, the Board directs that immediate action may be taken by the
jurisdictional Commissioners to institute a mechanism to identify such
defaulters, and ensure that follow-up action including invoking penalty under
the provisions of Central Excise law are taken against them. The jurisdictional
Chief Commissioners shall also monitor the proper working of this mechanism
every quarter.
- Receipt of this instruction may kindly be acknowledged.
Yours faithfully,
(Amish Kumar Gupta)
OSD (CX-8)
F.No.267/117/2010-CX8