The Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC ), on Thursday, directed its officials to follow its instructions and the legal provisions during physical verification of the premises and collection of duty.
The Board has issued a circular on Thursday in the light of the recent order of the Delhi High court in the case of DIGIPRO Import & Export Pvt. Ltd v. Union of India & Ors, wherein the Court criticized the Excise Department Officials for collecting undated cheques from assesses.
In the instant case, the petitioner-company, manufactures mobile phone batteries, chargers and LED bulbs, was paying excise duty @ 2% ad valorem on mobile phone battery and mobile phone charger, and 6% on LED bulbs. However, the department claimed that the tariff rate of duties on these products is 12.5% ad valorem.
According to the petitioners, they were eligible to avail an exemption as per a notification issued in March 2012 by the Central Excise department. In consequent to a search conducted by the Anti-Evasion Wing of Central Excise, Delhi some documents was seized and the officials collected five undated cheques amounting to a total of Rs. 12.5 crore.
The bench termed such action as “Illegal practice” which requires a deep investigation. The bench, further summoned the Commissioner of Central Excise, Delhi-II and directed him to file an affidavit showing the steps taken to curb this practice. He was also directed to conduct an enquiry immediately to find out which officers performed the “illegal exercise”. The bench also directed that a copy of this order be sent to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) in view of the seriousness of the issue.
In this background, the Board asked the concerned wings to issue instructions/directions to the officials time to time.
“In this regard, all concerned in CBEC are advised to strictly follow the legal provisions and instructions/ directions issued from time to time by the Board and not to deviate from the laid down procedure.”
Read the Full Text of the Circular Below
