Central Excise Case Involving Rs 750 Pending Since 1978; Latest CAG Report Highlights 593 Pending Prosecution Cases Involving Over Rs 2,000 Crore
Mumbai : In what could be the best example of waste of time, manpower and money, a latest report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) highlighted a prosecution case of the Central Excise department’s Maharashtra-based Raigad commissionerate, which is pending since 1978 and involves a meager Rs 750 worth duty.
The CAG’s latest report, submitted to Parliament, is on “prosecution and penalties”. The report contains significant results of the performance audit of “administration of prosecution and penalty in Central Excise and Service Tax”.
It highlights another case in the same commissionerate which is pending since 1973 and involves an amount of only Rs 9,000. The cases pertain to a tobacco company and a tobacco store.
The report mentions about a total of 593 prosecution cases in 46 Commissionerates involving a money value of Rs 2,011.56 crore and which are pending for many years. The Mumbai III commissionerate itself has 20 pending cases involving total amount of Rs 19.8 crore. It further mentions that 11 cases from five commissionerates involving merely Rs 1.8 lakh are pending trial in various courts for last around 30 years. The report also gives age-wise analysis of 468 cases that involves duty worth over Rs 1,146 crore.
The report further said that the audit conducted could not identify pendency period in 43 case having revenue implication of Rs 31.5 crore as the Central Excise department was unable to provide details of date of filing of complaints.
The report further pointed out that in 61 cases under 12 commissionerates and under DGCEI Mumbai, the audit could not verify whether the investigation reports were submitted to respective chief commissioners for sanction to launch prosecution, within stipulated time or not due to non-availability of records in the concerned files.
The CAG has recommended that the finance ministry may ensure review of all long pending cases at periodic intervals. It said that the review could be conducted by the respective chief commissioners.
It also recommended that the CBEC may strengthen its monitoring mechanism through monthly reports from all the chief commissionerates.
The report said that the ministry may discuss the pendency of prosecution cases during the monthly monitoring committee meetings to be convened by respective commissioners. It added that such meetings are being conducted but they are only to discuss internal audit findings.
It also said that the CBEC may have a trained group of personnel to handle issues pertaining to prosecution cases.
MANISH PACHOULY
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THE FINE PRINT
Age-wise pendency No of cases Amount
Over 30 years old 11 Rs 1.82 lakh
Over 20 years but less
than 30 years 141 Rs 11.27 crore
Over 10 years but less
than 20 years 91 Rs 75.79 crore
Less than 10 years old 182 Rs 1027.90 crore
Pendency period not known 43 Rs 31.50 crore
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