EXCISE

AMENDMENTS IN THE CENTRAL EXCISE ACT, 1944:

     1) The Central Excise Act, 1944 or Finance Act, 1994 is being amended so that a reference in that Act to a Chief Commissioner of Central Excise or a Commissioner of Central Excise may also include a reference to the Principal Chief Commissioner of Central Excise or the Principal Commissioner of Central Excise, as the case may be. It also seeks to provide for consequential amendments in the Act.

[Clause 88]

     2) Section 2(b) is being amended so as to provide for inclusion of Principal Chief Commissioner of Central Excise and Principal Commissioner of Central Excise in the definition of the Central Excise Officer.

[Clause 89]

     3) Section 15A is being inserted so as to empower the Central Government to prescribe an authority or agency to whom the information return shall be filed by the specified persons such as Income Tax Authorities, State Electricity Boards, VAT or Sales Tax Authorities, Registrar of Companies. Information can be collected for the purposes of the Act, such as, to identify tax evaders or recover confirmed dues. It is also proposed to insert a new section 15B which provides for imposition of penalty if the information return is not submitted.

[Clause 90]

     4) Section 31(g) and section 32(1) is being amended to change the name of the ‘Customs and Central Excise Settlement Commission’ to the ‘Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax Settlement Commission’ as the scope of the functioning of the Customs and Central Excise Settlement Commission was expanded in the year 2012 so as to include settlement of Service Tax matters as well.

[Clause 91, 92]

     5) Section 32E(1) is being amended to replace the reference to section 11AB with a reference to section 11AA since section 11AB has been omitted by the Finance Act, 2011.

[Clause 93]

    6) Section 32E(1) is also being amended to allow filing of applications of settlement before the Settlement Commission in cases where the applicant has not filed the returns after recording reasons for the same.

[Clause 93]

     7) Section 32E is being amended to omit sub-section (2) since the same is redundant.

[Clause 93]

     8) Section 32O(1) is being amended so as to insert an Explanation that the concealment of particulars of duty liability relates to any such concealment made from the officer of central excise and not from the Settlement Commission.

[Clause 94]

    9) Section 35B(1) is being amended so as to increase the discretionary powers of the Tribunal to refuse admission of appeal from the existing ₹ 50,000 to ₹ 2 lakh.

[Clause 95]

     10) Section 35B(1B) is being amended to substitute the words “by notification in the official gazette” with “by order” so as to enable the Board to constitute a Review Committee by way of an order instead of by way of a notification.

[Clause 95]

     11) Section 35C(2A) is being amended to omit the first, second and third proviso in view of substitution of section 35F with a new section.

[Clause 96]

     12) Section 35E is being amended to insert a proviso in sub-section (3) to vest the Board with powers to condone delay for a period upto 30 days for review by the Committee of Chief Commissioners of the orders in original passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise.

[Clause 97]

     13) Section 35F is being substituted with a new section to prescribe a mandatory fixed pre-deposit of 7.5% of the duty demanded or penalty imposed or both for filing appeal with the Commissioner (Appeals) or the Tribunal at the first stage and 10% of the duty demanded or penalty imposed or both for filing second stage appeal before the Tribunal. The amount of pre-deposit payable would be subject to a ceiling of ₹ 10 crores.

[Clause 98]

    14) Section 35L is being amended so as to clarify that determination of disputes relating to taxability or excisability of goods is covered under the term ‘determination of any question having a relation to rate of duty’ and hence, appeal against Tribunal orders in such matters would lie before the Supreme Court.

[Clause 99]

    15) Section 35R is being amended so as to enable the Commissioner (Appeal) to take into consideration the fact that a particular order being cited as a precedent decision on the issue has not been appealed against for reasons of low amount.

[Clause 100]

16) The Third Schedule to the Central Excise Act, 1944 is being aligned with notification No. 49/2008-CE (NT) dated 24.12.2008 which specifies goods liable for assessment based on Retail Sale Price (RSP).

[Clause 104]

     The change at para 16) will come into effect immediately owing to a declaration under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1931.

AMENDMENTS IN THE FIRST SCHEDULE TO THE CENTRAL EXCISE TARIFF ACT, 1985:

     1) Excise duty on cigarettes is being increased by 72% for cigarettes of length not exceeding 65 mm and by 11% to 21% for cigarettes of other lengths. Similar increases are proposed on cigars, cheroots and cigarillos.

     2) Basic excise duty is being increased from 12% to 16% on pan masala, from 50% to 55% on unmanufactured tobacco and from 60% to 70% on jarda scented tobacco, gutkha and chewing tobacco.

     3) Tariff item 2402 20 60 is being omitted.

     4) The entry 2403 19 occurring against the description “Other than paper rolled biris, manufactured without the aid of machine” is being substituted with 2403 19 21.

    5) The unit quantity code against certain entries is being changed.

[Clause 105]

The changes at 1) to 4) will come into effect immediately owing to a declaration under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1931.

RETROSPECTIVE AMENDMENT TO RULES:

     1) Rule 8 of the Pan Masala Packing Machines (Capacity Determination and Collection of Duty) Rules, 2008 is being amended with retrospective effect from 13.04.2010 to provide that where a manufacturer manufactures pouches of different RSPs on a single machine, the duty liability for that month would be the duty applicable to the highest of the RSP so manufactured. This will align the Pan Masala Packing Machines (Capacity Determination and Collection of Duty) Rules, 2008 with the Chewing Tobacco and Unmanufactured Tobacco Packing Machines (Capacity Determination and Collection of Duty) Rules, 2010 with regard to manufacture of pouches of different RSPs on a single machine under the compounded levy scheme.

[Clause 101]

RETROSPECTIVE EXEMPTIONS:

     1) Un-branded articles of precious metals are being exempted from excise duty for the period 01.03.2011 to 16.03.2012 so as to remove the unintended levy of excise duty on un-branded articles of precious metals for the said period.

[Clause 102]

    2) Excise duty on Polyester Staple Fiber (PSF) and Polyester Filament Yarn (PFY) manufactured from plastic waste or scrap or plastic waste including waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles (which is already exempt w.e.f. 08.05.2012) is being exempted retrospectively w.e.f. 29.06.2010 to 07.05.2012 and intermediate product ‘Tow’ arising during the course of manufacture of such PSF/PFY is being exempted retrospectively w.e.f. 29.06.2010 to 10.07.2014 so as to provide relief to the manufacturers of such PSF/PFY and to rectify the unintended levy of central excise duty on tow (an intermediate product) arising during the course of manufacture of such PSF/PFY.

[Clause 102, 103]

     3) Full exemption from Central Excise duty is being provided to Liquefied Propane and Butane mixture, Liquefied Propane, Liquefied Butane and Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPG) for supply to Non-Domestic Exempted Category (NDEC) customers by the Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited or Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited retrospectively from 08.02.2013 so as to treat NDEC customers, such as, hospitals, government canteens, BSF/CISF mess, etc., at par with domestic customers for the purposes of supply of LPG.

[Clause 103]