CBEC hikes monetary limits for prosecution of tax evaders

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has significantly scaled up the monetary limits for arrest and prosecution in crimes relating to smuggling and mis-declaration. It has also introduced strict safeguards to ensure that arrests and prosecution is initiation only in serious cases.

“The monetary limits for arrest and prosecution have been revised substantially upwards to ensure

that these powers are not used against small and medium businesses,” said a finance ministry release on Friday.

The monetary threshold for arrest and prosecution in cases of smuggling and mis-declaration of baggage has been hiked to ₹ 20 lakh from the current limit of ₹ 5 lakh.

Arrest and prosecution in cases of customs duty evasion through wrongful availing of exemption or duty drawback will only be initiated in amounts exceeding ₹ 1 crore from the current limit of ₹ 10 lakh.

A similar limit of ₹ 1 crore has also been set for arrest and prosecution in cases of evasion of central excise duty and service tax from the current threshold of ₹ 25 lakh and ₹ 10 lakh respectively.