United Projects v. State of Maharashtra – [2022] 141 taxmann.com 500 (Bombay)
The Maharashtra Tax Laws (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2019 has amended the provisions of the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002 to incorporate mandatory pre-deposit for filing appeals against the assessment orders pertaining to all the goods after 16th September 2016. In this writ petition, the question before the Honorable Bombay High Court was:
Whether the condition of 10% pre-deposit for entertaining appeal by appellate authority is onerous, unreasonable and violating Article 14 of the Constitution?
The Court observed that the unamended provisions gave discretion to the appellate authority to pass an order of deposit from 0% to 100% which gave a chance or hope of getting a waiver. However, later on, the State Government provided a package wherein it prescribed a condition of pre-deposit of 10% amount which resulted in staying recovery of 90% as a pre-condition for entertaining an appeal. The amended section prescribed 10% as the amount of pre-deposit and stayed recovery of 90% which will not take away vested rights if any.
The Government can enact a law stating no appeal shall lie or it may lie on fulfilment of pre-condition and such enactment can’t be said to be violating Article 14 or 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. Therefore, it was held that the amendment is constitutionally valid and a pre-deposit of 10% amount would be a reasonable condition and it could not be considered as onerous.
Circular No.16/2022-Customs dated August 29th, 2022
The CBIC has introduced new functionality for system-generated centralized examination orders for Bills of Entry. This functionality is expected to enhance the uniformity in the examination, lower the time taken in the process as well as reduce associated costs.
It will be implemented for the Second Check Bill of Entry in a phased manner, starting with one group of commodities and will thereafter be extended to all other goods incrementally, by adopting a modular approach. Accordingly, it has been decided that the above procedure will come into effect for goods covered under Assessment Group 4 in all the Customs Stations from September 5th, 2022.
Source Taxmann
