The Central Excise Act, 1944
32E. APPLICATION FOR SETTLEMENT OF CASES. –
1[32E. Application for settlement of cases.—2[(1) An assessee may, in respect of a case relating to him, make an application, before adjudication, to the Settlement Commission to have the case settled, in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed and containing a full and true disclosure of his duty liability which has not been disclosed before the Central Excise Officer having jurisdiction, the manner in which such liability has been derived, the additional amount of excise duty accepted to be payable by him and such other particulars as may be prescribed including the particulars of such excisable goods in respect of which he admits short levy on account of misclassification, under-valuation, inapplicability of exemption notification or CENVAT credit but excluding the goods in respect of which no proper record has been maintained by the assessee in his daily stock register and any such application shall be disposed of in the manner hereinafter provided:
Provided that no such application shall be made unless,— (a) the applicant has filed returns showing production, clearance and central excise duty paid in the prescribed manner;
(b) a show cause notice for recovery of duty issued by the Central Excise Officer has been received by the applicant;
(c) the additional amount of duty accepted by the applicant in his application exceeds three lakh rupees; and
(d) the applicant has paid the additional amount of excise duty accepted by him along with interest due under section 11AB:
Provided further that no application shall be entertained by the Settlement Commission under this sub-section in cases which are pending with the Appellate Tribunal or any Court:
Provided also that no application under this sub-section shall be made for the interpretation of the classification of excisable goods under the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (5 of 1986).
(1A) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where an application was made under sub-section (1), before the 1st day of June, 2007 but an order under sub-section (1) of section 32F has not been made before the said date or payment of amount so ordered by the Settlement Commission under sub-section (1) of section 32F has not been made, the applicant shall within a period of thirty days from the 1st day of June, 2007, pay the accepted duty liability failing which his application shall be liable to be rejected.]
(2) Where any excisable goods, books of account, other documents have
been seized under the provisions of this Act or rules made thereunder,
the assessee shall not be entitled to make an application under sub-section (1), before the expiry of one hundred and eighty days from the date of the seizure.
(3) Every application made under sub-section (1) shall be accompanied by such fees as may be prescribed.
(4) An application made under sub-section (1) shall not be allowed to be withdrawn by the applicant.]
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1.Chapter V (containing sections 31, 32, 32A to 32P) ins. by Act 21 of 1998, sec. 110 (w.e.f. 1-8-1998). Earlier Chapter V (containing ections 31 to 32) was omitted by Act 33 of 1996, sec. 79 (w.e.f. 28-9-1996).
2. Subs. by Act 22 of 2007, sec. 121, for sub-section (1) (w.e.f. 1-6-2007). Earlier sub-section (1) was amended by Act 10 of 2000, sec. 106 (w.e.f. 12-5-2000). Sub-section (1), before substitution by Act 22 of 2007, stood as under:
“(1) An assessee may, at any stage of a case relating to him make an application in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed, and containing a full and true disclosure of his duty or liability which has not been disclosed before the Central Excise Officer having jurisdiction, the manner in which such liability has been derived, the additional amount of excise duty accepted to be payable by him and such other particulars as may be prescribed including the particulars of such excisable goods in respect of which he admits short levy on account of misclassification or otherwise of such excisable goods, to the Settlement Commission to have the case settled and any such application shall be disposed of in the manner hereinafter provided:
Provided that no such application shall be made unless,—
(a) the applicant has filed returns showing production, clearance and central excise duty paid in the prescribed manner;
(b) a show cause notice for recovery of duty issued by the Central Excise Officer has been received by the applicant; and
(c) the additional amount of duty accepted by the applicant in this application exceeds two lakh rupees:
Provided further that no application shall be entertained by the Settlement Commission under this sub-section in cases which are pending with the Appellate Tribunal or any court:
Provided also that no application under this sub-section shall be made for the interpretation of the classification of excisable goods under the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (5 of 1986).”
