CBEC to constitute fresh panel of lawyers: Gangwar

Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has decided to constitute a fresh panel of lawyers for representation in High Courts and other adjudication bodies, Parliament was informed today.
CBEC annulled the appointment of 111 senior and junior standing counsels from the panel of counsels notified for representing the board and its field formation before High Court and other foras, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
"This was done in line with the guidelines where the normal tenure is only for three years from the date of appointments and all these counsels had already completed their tenure," he said.

CBEC has already initiated the process of constitution of a fresh panel, he said.
Replying to another question, Gangwar said, the government has taken several steps to settle disputes and tone up the overall direct and indirect tax administration.
As part of this, he said, directions were issued last year for formation of collegium of 2 chief commissioners to consider withdrawal of suitable cases pending in High Courts above monetary limit.
In a separate reply, Gangwar said RBI has imposed penalty on Barclays Bank of Rs 30,775 on January 12, 2016 for defaulting in maintenance of Cash Reserve Ratio.
In another reply, he said, SBI has initiated 15,070 civil proceedings having outstanding loans of Rs 53,725 crore, while 4,000 cases are pending before Debt Recovery Tribunal with outstanding loan of Rs 8,748 crore at the end of March 2016.