Trade Notice No.19//CE/SHG/2010 Dated Shillong the 26th of August, 2010
Subject: Power of adjudication of Central Excise Officers – Instruction Reg. Attention of the members of Trade, Industries, Field Formations, Departmental Officers and all others concerned is hereby invited to the Board’s Circular No. 752/68/2003-CX dated 01.10.’03 amended by Circular No. 865/3/2008-CX dated 19th February 2008 on the above subject. At present adjudication powers in Central Excise cases have been delegated upto the level of Assistant Commissioners only, and Superintendents are not vested with any authority to adjudicate cases. The Board has decided to confer the power of adjudication on Superintendents for cases involving duty upto Rs. 1 Lakh in a show cause notice, except in respect of issues involving rate of duty and valuation or where extended period of limitation has been involved. 2. Accordingly, under the provisions of Section 11A and 33 of the Central Excise Act, 1944, the following further amendments are made to the Circular 752/68/2003-CX dated 1st October 2003, as amended. I. In Part B of para 2.1 of the Circular, the following row shall be inserted:.
II. Consequently, the monetary limits of adjudication for the Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner would stand revised/amended in the said tables as follows:
III. After Para 4 of the said Circular, a new Para 4A shall be inserted as given below:- “4A Regarding the power of adjudication of cases given to Superintendents, the following aspects are clarified: I. They would be eligible to decide cases involving duty and/or CENVAT credit upto Rs. 1 Lakh in individual SCNs. II. TThey would not be eligible to decide cases which involve excisability of a product, classification, eligibility of exemption, valuation and cases involving suppression of facts, fraud etc.. III. They would be eligible to decide cases involving wrong availment of CENVAT credit upto a monetary limit of Rs. 1 Lakh. IV. They would be eligible to decide Show Cause Notice proposing only imposition of penalty under Rule 26 and 27 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 or Rule 15 and 15A of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004.” 3. The jurisdictional Deputy/Assistant Commissioners of Central Excise may redistribute the pending cases in their respective Division based on the above factors. It is further clarified that notwithstanding this revision, in all cases, where the personal hearing has already been completed, orders will be passed by the officer before whom the hearing has been held. Such orders should normally be issued within a month of the date of completion of the personal hearing. 4. It may also be noted that the age-wise pendency of cases as shown in MTR would 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. The jurisdictional Deputy/Assistant Commissioners should ensure that the work regarding re-allocation of pending cases, issuance of corrigendum to the Show Cause Notices, transfer of relevant files and records, etc., should be completed within a month. A compliance report in this regard should be sent by the Assistant/Deputy Commissioner to the Commissioner by 31.08.2010, certifying that all the work regarding re-allocation of cases has been completed. 5. The Board’s above Circular(s) is also available on the Official Website of the C.B.E.C. at HTTP:// www.cbec.gov.in 6. Hindi version will follow.
Authority: Issued by Govt. of India, Ministry of Finance, Central Board of Excise & Customs, New Delhi, under Circular No. 922/12/ 2010-CX dt. 18th May 2010.
(Hemant A. Bhat) Commissioner |