Report by Viju Mangalore - for Daijiworld News Network

Mangalore, Feb 23 (7-00 pm IST) The Mangalore Central Excise Commissionerate consisting of four divisions namely Mangalore-I, Mangalore-ll, Udupi Division and Service Tax & EOU division covering the revenue districts of Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the state of Karnataka will celebrate Central Excise Day on Friday February 24.

The celebrations will be held at Shanti Church hall, Balmatta and will be inaugurated by commissioner of customs, Mangalore Jasdeep V Singh. Principal SDM College of Business Management Dr K Devaraj will be the chief guest and Commissioner of Central Excise, Mangalore Dr John Joseph will preside over the programme.

Briefing the press on the performance of the commissionerate on Thursday, Dr John Joseph said that the Central Excise revenue for the year 2005 -06 (upto January) is Rs 3008.48 Crore. There is an increase of Rs 1204.19 crore (+66.74 per cent) when compared with the revenue of corresponding period of previous year.

The major revenue of this commissionerate comes from Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Limited, which contribute 93 per cent of the total revenue of the commissionerate. The non-petroleum revenue comes mainly from paper and iron and steel. He however added that the closure of Kudremukh mining operations had made the commissionate lose one of its major contributors.

“Since Service Tax is a fast growing segment, the commissionerate has a separate division handling Service Tax matters. The Service Tax Revenue for the current year upto January, 2006 has recorded a growth of 50 per cent over the corresponding period of previous financial year,” Dr Joseph said.

Since Liberalisation of Rules and procedures has reposed more faith on the assesses for voluntary compliance, the interface between the assessee and the officers has reduced considerably, he added. However, to protect the interest of the Government and to prevent the misuse of liberalized policies, Anti-Evasion and Audit Teams   have   been   formed   and   their   performance   has   shown a considerable upswing during the current financial year, registering an increase of 69 per cent in recovery compared to previous year and 60 per cent increase in amount involved, he explained.

Among the various activities of the commisionerate, the Information and Facilitation Counters and Help Centre, has been prominent. Centers have been set up in the offices and premises of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the purpose of easy access to information to members of public, in respect of Services and activities of this Department as well as facilitation of approvals, permissions and redressal of grievances.

Notable is the facility for submitting information relating to production, clearance, tax liability, etc on a weekly / monthly basis by filling the web form and submitting the data to the department electronically. This has been implemented to reduce assessee-officer interface leading to more transparency and less chance for corruption. The returns being filed by the assesses electronically are being used for monitoring of revenue trends. The data is being used to identify any adverse trends in revenue trends, which need further scrutiny. E-Payment facility has also been provided to the assesses.

Started functioning from April 1, 2000, the commissionerate contributes around 3.5 per cent to the national revenue of central excise. The commissionerate is poised to obtain revenue with the setting up of the Special Economic Zone.

Assistant commissioner, Central Excise S Rajagopal, assistant commissioner, Service Tax E Karunakaran, assistant commissioner Central Excise V Kannathasan and superintendent, Central Excise Egbert Pereira were also present at the press meet.