Home Case Index All Cases Central Excise Central Excise + HC Central Excise - 2014 (10) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2014 (10) TMI 448 - HC - Central ExciseNon fulfillment of export obligation - transfer of LOP - STPI unit - Jurisdiction of Commissioner of Central Excise to issue show cause notice - The petitioner attempts to project the show cause notice as one that has been issued without jurisdiction, by contending that once the transfer of the letter of permission is permitted by the Software Technology Parks of India, the Commissioner of Central Excise would not have jurisdiction to proceed against the petitioner. - Held that:- A careful look at the above circular would show that the circular deals with an entirely different contingency. Whenever a unit fails to achieve the target fixed (non fulfillment of export obligation), after a block of five years, the Development Commissioner would take a final decision within a period of six months after the expiry of five years. Based upon the said final decision, the Customs/Central Excise Authorities have to take action for recovery of duty. circular has no application to cases of this nature. In this case, we are not concerned with the shortfall in the achievement of target. We are concerned with serious allegations made in the show cause notice. Therefore, what applies to a genuine exporter under the circular bearing No.12/2008, cannot be used as a shield by the petitioner. Hence, the first writ petition challenging the show case notice is liable to be dismissed. There is one more reason as to why the first writ petition deserves to be dismissed. The show cause notice impugned therein is dated 18.4.2011. The petitioner kept on dillydallying for a period of more than a year seeking time to submit objections. It is only in August 2012, after a gap of about 16 months of dillydallying, that the petitioner came up with the first writ petition. Therefore, there are no bona fides in the challenge made by the petitioner to the show cause notice. The first respondent issued the impugned show cause notice to the petitioner as well as the transferees. In the event of the first respondent fixing the responsibility jointly and severally upon all of them, the petitioner can always proceed against the transferees in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract that they have with the transferees. Since the exemption was granted only to the petitioner on condition that the petitioner fulfills an export obligation, the petitioner cannot turn around and say that the transferees are the beneficiaries of the exemption and that the responsibility to fulfill export obligation should be fixed only upon the transferees. - Decided against assessee.
|