After the Hon’ble President has given assent to the Finance Bill, 2015 on Thursday, May 14, 2015, the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue vide Notification No. 14/2015-ST dated May 19, 2015 has notified increase in the rate of Service tax from 12.36% to flat 14% (Subsuming Education Cess and Secondary & Higher Secondary Education Cess) to be effective from June 1, 2015.
Section 112: Penalty for improper importation of goods etc. Section 112 is being amended so as to substitute sub-clause (ii) of clause (b) to provide that penalty for improper importation of the dutiable goods other than the prohibited goods would be higher of the following:
Section 11A: Recovery of duties not levied or not paid or short-levied or short-paid or erroneously refunded- a) Section 11A(5), 11A(6) and 11A(7) of the Excise Act contains the provisions relating to the category of cases where fraud, collusion, wilful mis-statement, etc., is involved but the details relating to the transactions are available in the specified record like reduced penalty of 50%, maximum penalty of 25% in cases where the duty amount, interest and reduced penalty is paid before issuance of SCN etc.
We are summarizing hereunder the changes in Service tax that are effective from May 14, 2015 and the changes that will become effective only from the date to be notified later for easy digest:
The Hon’ble President has given assent to the Finance Bill, 2015 on Thursday, May 14, 2015. Accordingly, the Finance Bill, 2015 now becomes Finance Act (No.20), 2015. However, it is to be noted here that increase in the rate of Service tax from 12.36% to flat 14% (Subsuming Education cess and Secondary & Higher Secondary Education cess) as was proposed in the Union Budget, 2015 will become effective only after the date to be notified and not effective from May 14, 2015.
With no consenus in sight and the Modi Government facing a number crunch in the Rajya Sabha, long-pending GST Constitutional Amendment Bill was on Tuesday, May 12, 2015 referred to a Select Panel after the opposition insisted on its legislative scrutiny.
The Exemption Notification exempted goods falling under Heading 87.03 of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 and consequently, duty payable was 40%. However, proviso to the Exemption Notification gives exemption of duty of 10% to the manufacturer of particular goods, namely, saloon cars, if such saloon cars are used solely as taxis. This exemption was further subjected to the other conditions as was specified in the Exemption Notification.
1. Whether the Adjudicating Authority is allowed to reassess/ re-quantify the amount of refund claim sanctioned vide the Appellate Order without challenging the same? 2. Whether the Adjudicating Authority is allowed to re-examine the refund claim on new and afresh ground which was neither alleged in SCN, original Adjudicating Order and the Appellate Order?
In view of the newly inserted provisos, some field officers took the view that whoever orders goods to the Manufacturer and directs the Manufacturer to send the goods to ultimate user directly are required to take Dealer’s Registration.
Amid stiff resistance followed by walk out by the Congress Members, the Lok Sabha today, on May 6, 2015 has passed the much awaited Constitutional (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 on Goods and Services Tax (GST) with 2/3rd majority.
