12.1         Section 73 of the Act deals with the adjudication of cases of short levy or non levy of service tax or   service tax short paid or not paid or erroneously refunded. For quick settlement of disputes, this section prescribes that (i) in cases other that those involving fraud, collusion, wilful mis-statement, suppression of fact or contravention of provisions of Act or rules made thereunder with intent to evade tax, the person chargeable to service tax, or to whom service tax has been erroneously refunded may make payment suo-moto along with interest, as applicable, and, consequently no Show Cause Notice would be served in respect of amount so paid; (ii) in other cases involving fraud, collusions, wilful mis-statement and suppression of facts, etc., the dispute could be settled by making payment of service tax amount specified in the notice along with interest and penalty equal to 25% of service tax amount, within thirty days of issue of show cause notice.  Section 83A confers powers on the Central Excise Officer for adjudging a penalty under the provisions of the said Act or the rules made thereunder. Board has specified monetary limits for adjudication of cases under section 83A of the said Act vide notification No. 30/2005- Service Tax dated 10th August, 2005. The monetary limits are as follows:

S.No	Central Excise Officer	Amount of service tax or CENVAT credit specified in a notice for the purpose of adjudication under section 83A
(1)	(2)	(3)
(1).	Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise or Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise	Not exceeding Rs. 5 lakhs
(2).	Joint Commissioner of Central Excise	Above Rs. 5 lakhs but not exceeding Rs. 20 lakhs
(3).	Additional Commissioner of Central Excise	Above Rs. 20 lakhs but not exceeding Rs. 50 lakhs
(4).	Commissioner of Central Excise	Without limit.

            Uniform monetary limits apply for the purposes of adjudication under section 73 and section 83A of the said Act.

            The monetary limits specified in the above Tables for adjudication of service tax cases are irrespective of whether or not such cases involve fraud, collusion, willful mis-statement, suppression of facts or contravention of any of the provisions of the said Act or the rules made thereunder with an intent to evade payment of service tax and whether or not extended period has been invoked.

            Further, those cases where there is no alleged failure to pay or evasion/avoidance of service tax or utilization of CENVAT credit is to be adjudicated by the Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise or Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise.

12.2       A notice to show cause under the provisions of the said Act or the rules made thereunder is to be approved in writing and signed by the Central Excise Officer who is competent to adjudicate the said notice.

12.3       Where simultaneously different cases involving the same issue are due to be adjudicated in a Commissionerate, all such cases may be adjudicated by the Central Excise Officer competent to decide the case where the service tax or CENVAT credit involved is of the highest amount.

12.4    For cases where the appellate authority remands the case for de-novo adjudication specifically mentioning the authority that has to adjudicate the case, then such authority specified in the said appellate order should adjudicate such cases. Where the appellate authority does not specifically mention the authority who has to adjudicate the case, then it should be decided by the authority who passed the said remanded order. The above specified monetary limits are not applicable in such cases.

12.5    As decided earlier by the Board, in respect of issue involving Show Cause Notice for an amount of Rs one thousand and below, towards short payment/non-payment of service tax, the jurisdictional officer should give an opportunity and allow the service taxpayer to deposit the amount of service tax not paid alongwith interest, if any.   In case the service provider pays the service tax alongwith interest within period of one month of the default in payment being pointed out, recourse should be made to section 80 of Finance Act, 1994 as amended provided the service taxpayer fulfils the conditions therein. However, in other cases of failure on behalf of Service provider to pay the service tax and interest, if any, normal procedure shall be followed.