Central Excise - Whether coercive measures to recover duty demanded as a result of adjudication till such time as the appeal filed by the appellant has been disposed of by the Collector (Appeals) be taken - Regarding - Central Excise - 16/92-CX.6

Central Excise - Whether coercive measures to recover duty demanded as a result of adjudication till such time as the appeal filed by the appellant has been disposed of by the Collector (Appeals) be taken - Regarding Circular No. 16/92-CX.6 Dated 12-11-1992 [From F. No. 208/59/92-CX.6] Government of India Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) Central Board of Excise Customs, New Delhi Subject : Central Excise - Whether coercive measures to recover duty demanded as a result of adjudication till such time as the appeal filed by the appellant has been disposed of by the Collector (Appeals) be taken - Regarding. During the course of discussions in the National Workshop on Customs organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries on 2-9-1992, a point was raised that the Departmental officers should not take coercive measures to recover the duty demanded as a result of adjudication till such time as the appeal filed by the appellant has been disposed of by the Collector (Appeals). 2. On the question of recovery of dues during pendency of stay petition/application, the matter was examined by the Board in the recent past and necessary instructions vide Cir. F. No. 208/107/90-CX.6, dated 21-12-1990 were issued in this regard. According to these instructions, the Central Excise Officers are to allow a period of three months from the date of decision for payment of the dues adjudged before resorting to coercive measures to recover such dues. However if a stay application of the assessee is rejected by the Appellate Authority even before the lapse of the time of three months, recovery proceedings should be initiated immediately. While coming to the said period of three months it was expected that the assessee should be in a position to file appeal within one month and the Appellate Authority to dispose of the same within another 2 months. 3. The issue has further been examined by the Board. The Board is of the view that it is not desirable to revise the above-mentioned instructions in the matter and provide for a blanket stay order for not taking coercive measures as pleaded by the Confederation of Indian Industries. If the assessee is deligent, as the things stand today, it would be possible to get orders on stay application well within a period of 3 months. In case of any individual hardships the case could be decided on a case to case basis. 4. In view of facts stated above, the Board desires that you may dispose of stay applications within a period of 2 months from the date of its receipt, in case for cogent reasons, you are not in a position to dispose of the main appeal within the same time frame.