Case Law Details
Bipco Industries (Tools) Pvt. Ltd. (Appellant) was informed about the short payment of Service tax by the Jurisdictional Range Officer on September3, 2007. The Appellant duly complied with the same by discharging the said Service tax liability by cheque dated September 29, 2009. Further, the Appellant also informed the Jurisdictional Range Office about the payment of Service tax liability along with interest.
Thereafter, a Show Cause Notice (SCN) was issued to the Appellant on September 14, 2010 imposing penalty upon the Appellant under Section 76 of the Finance Act, 1994 (Finance Act) which was further confirmed by the Commissioner (Appeals) by mentioning in its order that the SCN was issued to the Appellant on September 14, 2009 instead of September 14, 2010 (impugned order). Being aggrieved, the Appellant preferred an appeal before the Hon’ble CESTAT, Ahmedabad contesting the amount of penalty.
The Hon’ble CESTAT, Ahmedabad observed that the impugned order has factually recorded incorrect date of SCN as September 14, 2009 instead of September 14, 2010 and held that in terms of Section 73(3) of the Finance Act,when the Service tax liability was discharged along with interest before issuance of SCN, no penalty would be imposable on the Appellant.
(Bimal Jain, FCA, FCS, LLB, B.Com (Hons), Mobile: +91 9810604563, Email: bimaljain@hotmail.com)
Dear Bimalji,
Thank you for sharing. There should be cast a responsibility on the authorities issuing such notices. I have observed corroupt practices of notices being issued without any noting or recording on govt record and then the assessee is being harassed to “SETTLE” the issue.
Regards,
CA ANKIT PATHAK