CBEC Attempts To Accelerate Disposal Of Excise Cases

New Delhi: In an effort to speed up the disposal of pending Central excise cases, the Finance Ministry has brought parity in the adjudication powers of Joint Commissioners with that of Additional Commissioners in all the Central excise commissionerates of the country. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) have now improved the monetary limit of adjudication of cases by Joint Commissioners to that of Additional Commissioners. Currently, additional commissioners could adjudicate cases involving duty of up to Rs 50 lakhs. There is shortage of Additional Commissioners. This was leading to delay in the adjudication of cases falling under the monetary limit prescribed for Additional Commissioners.

As on end-December 2007, the number of Central excise cases pending adjudication stood at 14,493 involving an amount of Rs 8,652.12 crore. Meanwhile, the CBEC has now urged the concerned jurisdictional commissioners to redistribute the pending cases among the joint commissioners and submit a report to the Board by March 15, certifying that all the work regarding re-allocation of cases has been finished. This move of the CBEC will certainly reduce the number of pending excise duty related cases.