Boc Slapped With Notice For Rs 2cr Excise Evasion

The director general of anti-evasion (excise), Mumbai, has served a show-cause notice to BOC India for alleged excise duty evasion to the tune of Rs 2.10 crore.

The evasion case relates to BOC Indias alleged misdeclaration of the assessable value of the gaseous hydrogen and nitrogen it supplies to Float Glass India (FGIL).

The company has already paid a duty of Rs 37 lakh of the total outstanding amount, officials in the revenue department pointed out.

The case against BOC was booked after the DGAE had conducted searches of the office and factory premises of the company in March and seized a number of incriminating records.

 

According to the revenue department, BOC had entered into long-term agreements with FGIL for the supply of gaseous hydrogen and nitrogen through direct pipelines.

The department alleged that BOC has been recovering huge amounts from Float Glass India in the guise of facility charges over and above the basic price of the gases.

However, BOC had been declaring only the gas price (unit price) as assessable value of the gases, while the facility charges were not included in the assessable value for the purpose of payment of central excise, the officials added.

The facility charges allegedly claimed by BOC were fixed on the basis of investments made by the company in plant and machinery procured and installed for the manufacture and supply of the gases to FGIL.

These charges were an integral part of the price structure of the gases and a major consideration in the pricing of the product. The assessable value of the gases were accordingly depressed and the balance was collected by way of the facility charge on which no duty was being discharged, allege revenue officials.

The collection of these facility charges were fully suppressed from the department since they were collected through non-exciseable series of invoices.

The department alleged that even though BOC was recovering the facility charges from Float Glass India as an additional amount, the declaration of the invoices given by the company certified no flow of additional charges from their buyers.