Top Customs Officer in dock for Rs 1.5 Crore Consultancy Charges

Fortis to buy 23.9 per cent stake in Singapore's Parkway Employment of washing process in the manufacture of agglomerates etc from imported plastic waste and scrap-SEZ Instruction No.48 Government bans Fashion TV for 9 days for showing hot programs Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim ranked the richest person in the world with USD 53.5 billion in assets, followed by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet-Mukesh Ambani ranks fourth with USD 29 billion and Lakshmi Mittal fifth in Forbes list of world's top billionaires Haryana Government imposes surcharge ranging from 0.25 per cent to 0.7 per cent on VAT Khaitan & Co boosts Real Estate Practice-Ex IAS Officer Dr PK Agarwal joins Khaitan & Co as Partner Real Estate Practice in Delhi Service Tax Notification No. 17/2010 which exempts the taxable service providing packaged or canned software, intended for single use and packed accordingly amended-Service Tax Notification No.18 Procurement, Import and Export of Prohibited and Restricted Goods by SEZ Units-SEZ Instruction No. 47 Tractors are chargeable to tractor cess in terms of the Tractor Cess Rules, 1992 read with the IDRA Act, 1951-Central Excise Circular No. 916 Authority for Advance Ruling rules the amounts received/receivable by Technopromexport from NTPC under contract for Offshore supply of all plant and equipment including mandatory spares are not liable to tax in India under the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and DTAA between India and Russia-AIT-2010-79-AAR whether Cess levied under section 5 of Textile Committees Act, 1963 is includable as a component of CVD-AIT-2010-78-HC Export warehousing –Extension of facility at Gautam Budh Nagar in UP and Nagpur in Maharashtra-Central Excise Circular No. 917 Implementation of the provisions of COTP Act, 2003 and The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008- Empowering the Customs & Central Excise Officers-Central Excise Circular No. 918 Toilet linen and kitchen linen, of terry toweling or similar terry fabric, of cotton and of other textile materials added in Focus Product Scheme for exports made after 1st Jan 2010-DGFT PN 46 TDS on payment of interest on time deposits under Section 194A of the Income Tax Act by banks following Core-Branch Banking Solutions software-Income Tax Circular No.3 Tariff value for import of Brass scrap is 3732 and for poppy seeds 4640-Customs Non-Tariff Notification No.19 Duty Credit Scrips can also be used / debited towards payment of Customs Duties in case of EO defaults under Authorizations issued under Chapters 4 and 5 of the Policy-DGFT Notification No.32 SC Ruling-the nature of roll over premium charge incurred by the assessee as also the scope and applicability of Section 43A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, in the context of such charges-we find no merit in the contention of the assessee that roll over charges have nothing to do with the fluctuation in the rate of exchange-AIT-2010-75-SC Pre-authentication of excise invoices dispensed with Excise duty on Goggles and OTS cans hiked to 10 per cent av gas and mosquito net impregnated with insecticides subjected to 4 per cent excise Outright exemption from additional duty of customs (of 4%) leviable under sub-section (5) of section 3 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 to goods imported in a pre-packaged form and intended for retail sale Benefit of allowing Cenvat credit to be reversed on proportionate basis (when common inputs are used for the manufacture of dutiable and exempt products) extended retrospectively Bad News for flat bookers-unless the entire consideration for the property is paid after the completion of construction (i.e. after issuance of completion certificate by the competent authority), the activity of construction would be deemed to be a taxable service provided by the builder/promoter/developer to the prospective buyer and the service tax would be charged accordingly Bad News for ladies-sanitary napkins & kids diapers subjected to 10 per cent excise excise duty @ 4% imposed on specified IT products like microprocessor other than motherboards, floppy disc drives, CD-Rom drive etc when these items are meant for external use with a computer or laptop as a plug-in device Packaged software or canned software exempted from excise excise duty on Cartons, boxes and cases, of corrugated paper or paperboard manufactured by Standalone manufacturers lowered from 8% to 4% all ceramic tiles, whether manufactured by using electricity for firing the kiln or not, will attract a single excise duty rate of 10% process of drawing or redrawing of aluminium tubes and pipes as amounting to " manufacture" Excise duty on replaceable kits of all domestic water filters except those operating on RO technology reduced from 8% to 4% Excise duty exemption on parts, components and accessories of mobile handsets including cellular phones extended to parts of two accessories namely, battery chargers and hands-free headphones of these devices.

JUDGMENTS

CENTRAL EXCISE

CUSTOMS

exchange rate

SERVICE TAX

INCOME TAX

VAT

FINANCE ACTS

FINANCE BILLS

EOU STPI

SEZ

DGFT

RBI

NTT

RESOURCES

Email | Print

Top Customs Officer in dock for Rs 1.5 Crore Consultancy Charges

AIT News Network

MUMBAI. Axe has finally fallen on High profile Top Customs Officer of the rank of Chief Commissioner who now faces major penalty for alleged official misconduct for cheque payments amounting to around Rs 1.5 Crore received by his alleged innocent and inexperienced son from an Industrial House while he adjudicated a case in favour of the said Industrial House.

A firm M/s Alpha Medallia Agencies Private Limited, was allegedly floated only on paper, having no books of accounts, by inexperienced 24 year old son of the Top Customs Officer merely to recover Consultancy Charges of around Rs 1.5 Crore from the Industrial Group with whom his father had official dealings during his long stint in Mumbai. The firm could not produce any evidence to prove that it had provided any Consultancy to the said Companies. The rich son had no previous experience of any business or consultancy as shown to have been provided by him.
Customs Officer did not intimate the department under conduct rules about his son getting a huge consultancy fee from Company while he was himself adjudicating the matter related to the Company. Non-intimation is contravention of of Rule 4(2)(ii) of the CCS (conduct) Rules. The Top Officer has claimed that he was not aware of the activities of his son that he was a Consultant for the Companies which had official dealings with them.
The High Profile Officer was posted in Mumbai as Commissioner of customs (Imports), for a long time during the period when M/s Alpha Medallia received consultancy fees. The Officer adjudicated a matter pertaining to the import of company manuals, containing front-end engineering packages by a Big Group.
The Customs issued a Show Cause notice for Customs duty demand and penalty of Rs 62 crore . The Customs Officer adjudicated the case and lowered Customs duty to Rs 3.36 crore and also imposed a nominal penalty of Rs 10 lakh. The Customs Department challenged the order in appeal.
Another Company by the name of Abbavardin Impex allegedly floated by the son is said to have exported diamond and jewellery etc to Gulf , Hong Kong and South Africa, Oman and Hong Kong to the tune of Crores but inquiry by investigating agency has revealed these were fictitious transactions.
Corruption at Top level is the biggest challenge being faced by the Customs Department. Several Top Officers including Chairman of CBEC were booked by CBI in the past but the things have not changed and there is no soul-searching by the Officers.
Is there any use of booking an Officer for misusing his Position when the Officer has already worked with the Government for 35 years and is going to retire in next 3 months?
Government Officers remain poor while their sons, wives and relatives become rich. When they retire; they are disowned by even their own family members. A Senior IRS Officer was recently raided by CBI in Delhi and his own son is said to be informer as the relations between son and father strained on disputes related to share of money in business run by them. An IRS is yet to recover from the jolt given by his wife who did not bother to reach court when his bail application was being heard and he was in judicial custody as she opted for Airconditioned environment of her house rather than running around in heat of the summer.But exceptions are always there. A Senior IRS posted in Kolkata was raided by CBI some time back and cash of Rs 50 Lakh was recovered from Bank Locker. His wife gave a statement before the court that she was a High Class Call Girl and the cash seized by CBI was her income earned through Profession and her innocent husband was not aware of her Profession. Innocent husband was ultimately acquitted of corruption charges as the source of seized cash was duly explained by "Professional though unfaithful" wife.

· Another IRS Officer arrested by CBI

· Income Tax Commissioner jailed for One Year RI

· CBI raids several Customs Officers for extortion and corruption

· Joint Commissioner of Central Excise awarded 3 years RI for Corruption

· Commissioner of Customs loses his shirt

· CBI raids den of corruption Nhava Sheva

· A Dozen IRS Officers resign for Packages of Rs 1 Crore