The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has asked its officials to exercise caution while issuing showcause notices (SCNs) to assessees and ensure these are backed by "legal provisions".
CBEC has said "sometimes" notices have been issued that were legally unsustainable.
"Creating such avoidable SCNs not only becomes burden on government revenue, it also impacts the precious time of trade and industry, as well as appellate authorities/courts" it said. The recent instruction to chief commissioners of customs, central excise and service tax states that SCNs should be issued "after through examination and keeping in mind that grounds given in the SCNs are cogent, sustainable and backed by legal provisions and pronouncements".
Also Read
The government has been stressing upon the need to provide a non-adversarial tax administration and improve the ease of doing business.
In another communication, CBEC has asked sommissionerates to regularly monitor the cases where the government interest had not been adequately defended and send reports to the board.
