CBEC Seeks Suggestions on Proposed Amendments in the CESTAT Forms

[CBEC Draft Circular dated 4^th July 2012]

Sub- Suggestions on proposed amendments in the CESTAT Forms.

EA 3, EA 4 and EA 5 forms have been notified for filing appeal in Central Excise disputes. Similarly, CA 3, CA 4 and CA 5 have been prescribed for Customs cases and ST 5, ST 6 and ST 7 for disputes in Service Tax matters.

2. It is proposed to amend the existing forms meant for filing appeals in the Tribunal The purpose of the proposed amendment is to align all the forms and include more fields like assessee code and location code etc for quick and effective communication and, more importantly, to facilitate creation of data base by providing inputs fields that can be captured by the System.

3. The following points are highlighted:

(i) In the new forms, appellants would be allowed to cite three case laws on which they propose to rely. (other case laws could be indicated in the main appeal)

(ii) A box is proposed to be inserted in the forms in which the appellants would select from a list of pre-determined issues involved in the dispute. This is expected to help in bunching and quick disposal of cases involving identical issues. It is also proposed to make provision for a common alpha-numeric number to all the Orders in Original and Orders in Appeal which would help in linking related and contra appeals.

4. The revised forms incorporating the proposed amendments are being annexed. Field formations as well as trade representatives are requested to see the proposed revised forms and furnish their valuable suggestions/inputs that need to be incorporated in the forms so as to make them more useful. Suggestions in this regard may be sent to dirjc-cbec@nic.in by 20.7.2012.

Annexure 1: Proposed EA 3, EA 4 and EA 5 forms

Annexure 2: Proposed CA 3, CA 4 and CA 5 forms

Annexure 3: Proposed ST 5, ST 6 and ST 7 forms