Commissioner of Service Tax, Bangalore vs Top Security Ltd.

N. Kumar, J.—Revenue has preferred this appeal against the order passed by the Tribunal which declined to interfere with the order passed by the Commissioner of appeals to reduce Rs. 1,00,000-00 to Rs. 75,000-00.

The material on record discloses that the assessee paid the service tax along with interest The penalty of Rs. 1,00,000-00 was imposed by the Assessing Authority. The assessee preferred an appeal challenging only the penalty portion. The Commissioner of Appeals on careful consideration of the material on record, in its discretion has reduced the penalty from Rs. 1,00,000-00 to Rs. 75,000-00. The order was challenged by the Revenue before the Tribunal, which rightly rejected the same. It is against that order the present appeal is filed before us.

The penalty which is reduced is hardly Rs. 25,000-00. We are sure, the Department has spent more than Rs. 25,000-00 in challenging the said reduction, which is a waste of money. The Department should be more circumspective in filing these appeals, in spending public money, wasting their time and wasting the time of the Tribunal as well as this Court. We deprecate this practice of the Department in filing appeals mechanically, without application of mind. Probably because of this reckless filing of cases, now a policy decision is taken not to file any appeals before this Court, where the amount involved is less than Rs. Two lakhs.

For the aforesaid reasons, we find no merit in this appeal. Accordingly it is dismissed.