Service Tax Tribunal
In the indirect tax matter service tax issue is the rising factor. The corporate world is still trying to come to terms with the infant tax laws of service tax, which seems to be evolving and opening new areas of concerns with every passing day. However, the Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) has come out with an order to overcome the confusion in one area whether composite contracts (with more than one service components) can be ‘‘vivisected’’ to levy service tax or not.
The Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal* (CESTAT) was previously known as Customs, Excise & Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (in short CEGAT), was formed on the 11th October 1982, and will be celebrating 25 years of its continuation soon.
CESTAT was formed to offer an independent forum to pay attention to the appeals against orders and decisions surpassed by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise under the Customs Act, 1962, Central Excise Act, 1944, Finance Act 94 concerning to Service Tax. Section 83A of the Finance Act, 1994 ('the Act') offers that whereunder the provisions of service tax or rules made thereunder any person is legally responsible to a penalty, such penalty may be judged by the Excise Officer conferred with such power as the Central Board of Excise and Customs constituted under the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963 may, by notification, in the Official Gazette, specify. Section 84 of the Act provides the revision of orders by the Commissioner of Central Excise. Section 85 of the Act provides for filing appeal to the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) and section 86 of the Act provides for filing appeals to the Tribunal. |
In general, it is supposed that the opinions of natural justice should be examined in judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings i.e. a reasonable opportunity is to be given to the parties to the adjudication or appeal. The higher bodies generally remand the cases to the lower authorities to decide the case afresh for non-compliance of the principles of natural justice or for other reasons. Here we will discuss the circumstances under which the service tax cases are remanded with reference to the decided case laws. The Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, deals with the task of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Service Tax. The CBEC is assisted by the Directorate of Service Tax located at Mumbai. The Service Tax is being administered by various Central Excise Commissionerate spread across the country. The jurisdiction of each Commissionerate has been specified vide Notf. No. 14/2002-CE(NT) as amended from time to time. However there are six Commissionerates located at metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Bangalore which deal exclusively with work related to Service Tax. These Commissionerates are supervised by the jurisdictional Chief Commissionerate of Central Excise. Each Commissionerate consists of 3 to 5 divisions with each division consisting of a number of range offices.
The Tribunal is also empowered to hear the appeals against orders passed by the designated authority with regard to Anti Dumping Duties under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975
It has 3 benches in Delhi and 4 benches in Mumbai and one each at Kolkata, Chennai and Banglore. Each Bench consists of a Judicial Member and a Technical Member. With a view to have expeditious disposal of small cases, a Bench of Single Member deals with the matters not exceeding Rs.10 Lakhs is also constituted.
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Goods and Services Tax
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