Self-Adjustment of excess service tax paid by Assessee

The hon’ble CESTAT NEW DELHI, in case of  'M/S PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK VERSUS C.C.E. & S.T.CHANDIGARH' held that Self adjustment of excess service tax paid can be done against the service tax liabilities for subsequent period.

Audit can be done by only Auditor- Delhi High court decision

The Delhi high court, in a leading judgement delivered on 3rd June, 2016, has declared service tax audit being conducted by Central Excise and Service tax department as ultra virus, in the matter of Mega Cabs Vs UOI. The matter was argued by Mr. J.K. Mittal, FCA as advocate of the petitioner.

The court held that audit is a specialized function and cannot be delegated to service tax department or Excise department. It has been a general practice of the service tax department to conduct Audit of Service tax assesses for the last 5 years by deputing own officers of the rank of inspectors and Superintendents. Service tax department also seeks voluminous details and seek information in self- specified formats/ annexures. Now this judgement made it clear that the officers of the department have no power to conduct Audit at all. The honorable High Court has also held that the CAG officers have no power to conduct audit of assessee's records.

Buy 1 get 1 free’ deals to come under GST

Free samples and gifts offered with purchases as well as popular ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ deals may attract the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) levy which government plans to roll out from April 2017.
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Input tax credit cannot be denied because seller has not deposited the tax collected

Fact of the Case:- the petitioner is a partnership firm under the name and style of M/s Gheru Lal Bal Chand, engaged in the business of sale and purchase of cotton. The petitioner procures material from different persons and sells the same in terms of the provisions of the relevant Act and the Rules and the tax which is paid by the dealer after deduction of Input Tax Credit is paid in the treasury. The firm is registered under the provisions of Act as well as the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (in short, the 'Sales Tax Act'). As per the petitioner, the scheme under the Act is that on the sale of goods, tax calculated would be treated as "output tax". But if the purchases are made from within the State of Haryana, the tax paid on such purchases is to be set off from the out-put liability and resultant tax liability is paid by the selling dealer. The assessing authority observed that the petitioner was not entitled for deducting input tax credit as per provisions of Section 8 of the Act, because the Value Added Tax (VAT) dealers from whom the petitioner had purchased certain goods had not deposited the full tax in the State Treasury. The stand of the dealer, however, is that it made bona fide purchases from the selling dealers who were duly registered by the Assessing Authority under the Act and irrespective of the fact, whether they paid full tax or not, he should be allowed the necessary input Tax Credit. The said selling dealers discharged their tax liability and deposited the tax payable by them by deducting the input tax credit available to them.

Can two or more Premises be registered as one registrant under Excise?

Yes, two or more premises can be registered under excise as one registrant if :-
(i)   two or more premises of the same factory are located in a close area
(ii)  these premises are within the jurisdiction of a Central Excise Range and
(iii) the process undertaken there are interlinked and
(iv) the units are not operating under any of the area based exemption notifications,
 If above conditions are met, the Commissioner of Central Excise, may, subject to proper accountal of the movement of goods from one premise to other and such other conditions and limitations, as may be prescribed, allow single registration.

For more details refer the circular below:-
Circular No. 1016/4/2016-CX