Dept of Revenue
Issues New CESTAT Appeal Forms for Excise, Customs and Service Tax – Effective from
1 June 2013
[CBEC Circular No. 969 dated 11th April
2013]
Sub:
Amendment to CESTAT Appeal Forms.
The Board has decided to
amend/revise the forms for filing appeal in the CESTAT. Accordingly, new forms
for Central Excise (E.A.-3, E.A.-4, E.A.-5), Customs (C.A.-3, C.A.-4, C.A.-5)
and Service Tax (S.T.-5, S.T.-6, S.T.-7) have been notified vide
Notification Nos 6/2013-Central Excise (N.T.),
37/2013-Customs (N.T.) and 5/2013-Service Tax, all dated 10.04.2013
respectively. These forms have been made effective from 1.6 2013. Therefore,
all appeals filed in the Tribunal on or after 1.6.2013 would be in the new form
being prescribed.
(2). The
new forms are expected to ensure quick disposal of cases. Additional
information sought would lead to faster communication between the Tribunal
Registry and the appellant, bunching of cases and would also facilitate
creation of a comprehensive database.
3). Salient features of the
changes introduced in the new appeal forms are as under-
(i). Presently appeal against the
orders passed by Commissioner (Appeals) under sub-section (2) of Section 35 B
of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and sub-section (2) of Section 129A of the
Customs Act, 1962 are being filed in E.A.-3 and C.A.-3 forms respectively by
the department. These forms are also used for filing appeals by the party. Similarly,
E.A.-5 and C.A.-5 forms are being used for filing departmental applications
against Order-in-Original of Commissioner on the strength of order of the
Committee of Chief Commissioner under sub-section (1) of Section 35E of the
CEA, 1944 and sub-section (1) of Section 129D of the Customs Act, 1962. While
in the Service tax matter, appeals are filed under Section 86 (2) and Section
86 (2A) of the Finance Act, 1994 against orders passed by the Commissioner and
Commissioner (Appeals) respectively in a single form S.T.-7. Therefore, to
align the forms for filing appeals with that of Service Tax, in the new appeal
forms, the appeal against order passed by Commissioner (Appeals) in Central
Excise and Customs matter are to be filed in the new E.A.-5 and C.A.-5 forms
along with appeal against orders passed by the Commissioner.
(ii). Separate fields have been
provided in the new forms seeking details of Assessee
Code (PAN based registration number), Location Code (Commissionerate
/ Division / Range identifier), PAN or UID where PAN is not available. Apart
from this, e-mail address, telephone number and fax number of the assessee is also being sought in the new forms. These new
fields are intended to facilitate quick communication between the Tribunal
Registry and the Appellant and would help in identifying the location code of
the assessee in case of shifting of the unit or
re-organization of the jurisdiction under which the unit existed earlier. In
such cases, the Tribunal Registry was not able to reach to the assessee for service of notices and delivery of orders. Location
Codes can be obtained from websites http://cbec.nsdl.com and www.aces.gov.in
(iii). In appeal forms for Customs, IEC (Importer
Exporter Code) is to be furnished mandatorily by the Appellant along with the
Port Code so as to identify the Port from which the import or export has taken
place. These Port Codes are available on ICEGATE.
(iv). In Service Tax forms, a
separate field for Premises Code is being introduced for identification of the
jurisdictional Commissionerate / Division / Range.
(v). PAN is required to be furnished by the Appellants. In case where
PAN is not available and the Appellant is having UID, the same is required to
be furnished. This would help in identification / location of persons who are
not registered with the Department but are charged with penalty etc.
(vi). It has been decided to
introduce a 21 string alphanumeric number along with the date of the Order
against which appeal is being filed. All the 140 existing Commissionerates
have been assigned pre-figured series and serial numbers have to be filled in
for the orders passed by the Commissioner or Commissioner (Appeal) or
Commissioner (Adjudication), as the case may be. Some examples of the
alpha-numeric series are as below-
“AHM-CUSTM-000-COM-034-12-13
DT 02-09-2012. This would mean Order-in-Original No.34 for the year 12-13 passed by
Commissioner of Customs, Ahmadabad.”
In case of Commissioner
(Appeals), the alpha numeric number would consist of APP in place of COM. For
example-
“AHM-CUSTM-000-APP-034-12-13
DT 02-09-2012. This would mean Order-in-Appeal No.34 for the year 12-13 passed by
Commissioner of Customs (Appeals), Ahmadabad.”
To illustrate, first three
letters denote the city where the Commissionerate
office of the Adjudicating authority is located.
The next 5 alpha string
denotes the nature of the Commissionerate i.e. ‘CUSTM’
for exclusive Customs Commissionerates, ‘EXCUS’
for combined Commissionerates of Excise, Service Tax
& Customs, ‘SVTAX’ for exclusive Service Tax Commissionerates
and ‘LTUNT’ for LTU Commissionerates. This
part of the code is for the Commissionerate, and NOT
for the subject matter of the impugned order. Thus, even if the impugned
order passed by (or relating to), say, a Central Excise Commissionerate
relates to Customs or Service Tax matters, the second part of the code would
still read as EXCUS. This is necessary for achieving the desired purpose of Commissionerate-wise indexing of appeals.
The next three numeric
strings denote the specific Commissionerate where the
first eight strings are not sufficient to identify the Commissionerate.
In cases where the first two parts suffice to identify the Commissionerate,
this third part will simply be three zeroes, i.e. “000”. For example, the code
of Ahmedabad Customs Commissionerate would be
AHM-CUSTM-000. The code of Allahabad Central Excise Commissionerate
would be ALD-EXCUS-000. The reason why 000 has to be kept in the third part
even for such Commissionerates is because no field
can be left blank in the string. In respect of places having more than one
Central Excise Commissionerates, the third part will
be 001, 002, 003 and so on. In respect of Commissioner
(Adj), this part will be ‘ADJ’. In respect of Customs
(Preventive) Commissionerates, the third part will be
PRV. In respect of Customs Commissionerates in
Chennai/Delhi/Mumbai, the codes given in the third part suitably capture the
nature of the Commissionerate. For example,
CHN-CUSTM-SXP refers to Chennai Customs Sea (Export) Commissionerate
(the ‘S’ in the 3rd part is for Sea and the XP is for Export). Similarly, in
the code DLI-CUSTM-AGN for the Delhi [Airport, ACC (Import) and (General) Commissionerate], the third part AGN means ‘A’ for Airport
and ‘GN’ for General.
Thus, to recapitulate, the
first three parts (11-characters long) of the proposed numbering system will
uniquely identify the Commissionerate of the
adjudicating authority. The next three alpha strings denote the officer who is
adjudicating the case. COM would denote Order in Original passed by the
Commissioner, APP would denote order in appeal passed by the Commissioner
(Appeal) and ADJ would mean order in original passed by the Commissioner
(Adjudication).
The next three numeric
strings is meant for serial number of the order to be
assigned by the office of the Commissioner who is passing the order.
The next four numeric
strings would denote the financial year in which the order was passed.
The last 8 empty boxes in
the string are meant for the date and year of the order passed.
(vii). Separate entries are being
provided in the revised form for demand of duty, fine, penalty and interest.
(viii). In order to facilitate
bunching of identical issues separate entry has been provided with subject
codes which are being appended to the forms. The Appellant would be required to
tick mark the subject in dispute. For example, in a Customs Appeal, Sl. No.16
requires the appellant to choose from the list given under three separate heads
of “Import”, or “Export”, or “General” depending upon the nature of the case.
(4). The
above changes may be taken note of by the field formations as well as trade for
proper usage of the new forms from 1.6.2013. However, the old forms may
continue to be used for a period of three months from the date of coming into
effect of the new forms, i.e. till 31.08.2013. From 01.09.2013 onwards,
no appeal shall be filed in the old forms.
(5). Wide publicity may be given
to the new form for the benefit of trade and industry.
(6). The
pre-figured alpha numeric numbers for all the 139 Commissionerates
and 8 Commissioners (Adjudication) are being uploaded on the websites - http://www.cbec.gov.in
under Legal Affairs and http://www.cdrcestat.gov.in
F.No.390/Misc./46/2011-JC