MM TAX CLUB

Earlier GST Council in its 50^th Council meeting held on 11^th July 2023, recommended to provide special procedure for manual filing of appeal against order passed by proper office under 73 or 74 of the act, in pursuant to the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India v/s Filco Trade Centre Pvt. Ltd.

Now, CBIC vide Notification no. No. 29/2023 – CENTRAL TAX dated 31st July, 2023 notified the aforesaid special procedure as under;

                In exercise of the powers conferred by section 148 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017) (hereinafter referred to as the said Act), the Central Government, on the recommendations of the Council, hereby notifies the following special procedure to be followed by a registered person or an officer referred to in sub-section (2) of Section 107 of the said Act who intends to file an appeal against the order passed by the proper officer under section 73 or 74 of the said Act in accordance with Circular No. 182/14/2022-GST, dated 10^th of November, 2022 pursuant to the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Union of India v/s Filco Trade Centre Pvt. Ltd., SLP(C) No.32709-32710/2018.

                An appeal against the order shall be made in duplicate in the Form appended to this notification at ANNEXURE-1 and shall be presented manually before the Appellate Authority within the time specified in subsection (1) of section 107 or sub-section (2) of section 107 of the said Act, as the case may be, and such time shall be computed from the date of issuance of this notification or the date of the said order, whichever is later:

Provided that any appeal against the order filed in accordance with the provisions of section 107 of the said Act with the Appellate Authority before the issuance of this notification, shall be deemed to have been filed in accordance with this notification.

3.            The appellant shall not be required to deposit any amount as referred to in sub-section (6) of section 107 of the said Act as a pre-condition for filing an appeal against the said order.

4.            An appeal filed under this notification shall be accompanied by relevant documents including a self-certified copy of the order and such appeal and relevant documents shall be signed by the person specified in sub rule (2) of rule 26 of Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017.

5.            Upon receipt of the appeal which fulfils all the requirements as provided in this notification, an acknowledgement, indicating the appeal number, shall be issued manually in FORM GST APL-02 by the Appellate Authority or an officer authorised by him in this behalf and the appeal shall be treated as filed only when the aforesaid acknowledgement is issued.

6. The Appellate Authority shall, along with its order, issue a summary of the order in the Form appended to this notification as ANNEXURE-2.

The CBIC issued Instruction No. 25/2023-Customs dated July 28, 2023, which aims to standardize documentary and information requirements for AD Code Registration/modification in relation to exports.

Reference is invited to Circular No. 32/2020-Customs dated July 06, 2020 inter-alia relating to facility of online registration of Authorised Dealer (AD) Code on ICEGATE. The facility of online AD registration was further simplified by making AD code registered at one port automatically applicable at all customs locations (vide DG Systems Advisory No. 10/2022 dated June 14, 2022). Further, with respect to bank account registration for IGST refund /Drawback purpose, option is available in ICEGATE portal for applying registration of bank account for every port where exporter intends to transact.

The Board is in receipt of grievances relating to delays in the approval of AD code and in the bank account registration process. The issue has been examined in consultation with field formations and the Systems Directorate. There is a need to minimize and standardize documentary requirements (as well as information necessary to be contained therein), across all the Customs Zones. It is also noted that, the bank account for IFSC is validated by PFMS before the disbursal of an amount.

Accordingly, it has been decided that henceforth the field formation may place reliance on only the following two documents uploaded (using digital signature) on e-Sanchit for purposes of approval of AD code/ bank account registration,-

(a) Bank's Authorization Letter incorporating the following details –

(i) Name of the exporter & exporter address

(ii) IEC No. issued by DGFT to the said exporter

(iii) PAN associated with said IEC No.

(iv) Bank account number associated with said IEC No.

(v) Name of the holder of said Bank account No.

(vi) Confirmation by the Bank, that PAN linked with the said Bank account is same as the PAN linked with said IEC No.

(vii) Bank AD Code / IFSC Code, as the case may be

(viii) Name, address, contact details and official e-mail ID of the Bank branch where the said Bank account No. is held; and

(b) Copy of a cancelled cheque related to said Bank account No. (or latest bank statement of the said Bank account endorsed by the Bank).

With this specification the need for physical interactions with members of the trade or their representatives should not arise, hence Zonal Chief Commissioners may ensure no room for grievance on this count. It is also directed to put in place a suitable mechanism to ensure that application for AD code/ bank account registration is dealt on the same day when made before 2 PM. In other cases, the application should be disposed before 2 PM on next working day.

Issues faced in implementation may be brought to the notice of the Board.

Sugar factories operating in the co-operative sectors in certain States of India pay to sugarcane growers a final amount, often referred to as Final Cane Price (FCP) which is over and above the Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) fixed by the Central Government under the Sugarcane Control Order, 1996.

2. The payment of FCP by the co-operative sugar factories over and above the SMP for purchase of sugarcane had resulted into tax litigation. The co-operative sugar factories were claiming this excess payment as business expenditure whereas the same has been disallowed in the assessment on the ground that the excess price paid for purchase of sugar cane over and above SMP is in the nature of appropriation/distribution of profit and hence not allowable as deduction.  

3. In order to provide certainty in this matter and to encourage co-operative movement in sugar sector, a new clause (xvii) was inserted to amend sub-section (1) of section 36 of the Income-tax Act (hereinafter referred to as 'Act') to provide that the amount paid for purchase of sugarcane by the co-operative societies engaged in the manufacture of sugar at a price which is equal to or less than the price fixed by or fixed with the approval of the Government shall be allowed as deduction for computing business income of the sugar co-operative factories. The said amendment came into force through the Finance Act 2015 w.e.f. 01.04.2016 and was applicable from A. Y. 2016-17 onwards. Pending demands and litigation still persisted in respect of A Y s prior to 2016-17. 

4. Therefore, to conclude the matter logically and to extend the benefit of the abovementioned relief to all the applicable years, section 155 of the Act has been amended to insert a new subsection (19) vide Finance Act, 2023, w.e.f. Olst April 2023. It provides that in the case ofa sugar mill cooperative, where any deduction in respect of any expenditure incurred for the purchase of sugarcane has been claimed by an assessee and such deduction has been disallowed wholly or partly in any previous year commencing on or before the I sl day of April, 2014, the Assessing Officer shall, on the basis of an application made by such assessee in this regard, recompute the total income of such assessee for such previous year. The Assessing Officer shall allow such deduction to the extent such expenditure is incurred at a price which is equal to or less than the price fixed or approved by the Government for that previous year. Also, it provides that the provisions of section 154 of the Act shall, so far as may be, apply thereto, and the period of four years specified in sub-section (7) of said section 154 shall be reckoned from the end of previous year commencing on the 1 st day of April, 2022

5. In order to standardize the manner of filing application to the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer under sub-section (19) of section 155 of the Act and its disposal by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer under the said section, following SOP has been outlined.  

(a) The applicant must be a "co-operative society", as defined in sub-section (19) of section 2 of the Income-tax Act, engaged in the business of manufacturing of sugar. The co-operative society (referred to as "such co-operative society" hereinafter) seeking relief under sub-section (19) of section 155 of the Act should file an application to the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer.

(b) The application by such co-operative society can be filed for A Y 2015-16 or any earlier assessment year (AY). 

(c) The Jurisdictional Assessing Officer may seek the following documents for the purpose of recomputation under sub-section (19) of section 155 of the Act: 

i) Computation of tax, audit report u/s. 44AB of the Act, audited Profit & Loss Account and Balance Sheet. 

ii) Assessment Order/Appellate Order(s) of various appellate fora, as applicable, with respect to the disallowance made on account of excess price paid for purchase of sugarcane above the Statutory Minimum Price (SMP). 

iii) Notice of Demand issued under section 156 of the Act. 

iv) Challan of taxes paid, if any.

v) Copy of Order(s)/Other legal instrument(s) regarding price fixation by Government based on which excess price was paid for purchase of sugarcane over and above Statutory Minimum Price (SMP).

vi) Documentary evidence regarding registration of co-operative society under State/Central Act.

vii) Any other document as considered necessary by the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer for the purposes of recomputation of total income under sub-section (19) of section 155 of the Act. 

(d) The Jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall recompute the total income of such co-operative society under the provisions of sub-section (19) of section 155 read with section 154 of the Act. Further, the rectification under sub-section (19) of section 155 r.w.s. 154 of the Act can only be made till 31.03.2027. 

(e) The Jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall pass an order under s. 155(19) r.w.s. 154 of the Act within a period of six months from the end of the month in which the application is received by him. 

6. Hindi version to follow.