Reading a show cause notice: the first thirty days
What to check before anyone starts drafting, why the period matters more than the merits, and the three things that quietly decide the matter years later.
Read the note
On the other side of the file
Prevent the dispute. Not just defend it.
We spent more than thirty five years inside the department, reading files the way the officer reads yours. That is the whole of our advantage, and we use it early. Most of the demands we see could have ended as a two page reply, months before they became a notice, a hearing, and a pre-deposit.
Customs, GST, SEZ and DGFT. We would rather settle a matter while it is still a question than argue it for six years and win.
Where a matter is best resolved
Compliance riskBefore anything is written downResolve here
Departmental queryThe first contactWe come in here
Show cause noticeReply
AdjudicationSubmissions
Demand and recoveryCostly
AppealAppellate
Earlier is cheaperCost and risk rise
Illustrative. Every matter turns on its own facts.
The frameworks this practice lives in
Customs Act 1962Customs Tariff Act 1975CGST and IGST Acts 2017SEZ Act 2005Foreign Trade Act 1992Foreign Trade Policy 2023Customs Valuation Rules 2007CESTAT, Ahmedabad
What we do
Four practices, one discipline.
Indirect tax and foreign trade look like four separate things. They are not. A valuation call taken at the port turns up again as a credit dispute in GST and as a shortfall against an export obligation, and each authority quotes the others. We work all four, so a point conceded to close one file is not paid for twice in the next.
Customs and international trade
Classification, valuation, origin, and everything that follows when a consignment is questioned at the port.
- Classification and tariff disputes
- Valuation, including related party imports
- Provisional assessment and finalisation
- Seizure, detention and provisional release
- Appeals to the Commissioner and the Tribunal
The practice
GST advisory and disputes
Scrutiny, audit, credit denials and demands, from the first reconciliation through to the appellate stage.
- Scrutiny in ASMT-10 and departmental audit
- Input tax credit denials and mismatches
- Refunds on exports and inverted duty
- Demands under Sections 73, 74 and 74A
- Appeals and pre-deposit planning
The practice
SEZ and export oriented units
Approvals, performance obligations, clearances into the domestic market, and exit.
- Letters of approval and unit approvals
- Net foreign exchange and annual reporting
- Clearances into the domestic tariff area
- Exit, de-bonding and duty on removal
- Proceedings before the Development Commissioner
The practice
DGFT and foreign trade policy
Authorisations, export obligation, remission schemes, and the proceedings that follow a shortfall.
- Advance Authorisation and EPCG
- Export obligation, extension and redemption
- Remission schemes and duty drawback
- Importer exporter code and status holder
- Adjudication and appeal under the Foreign Trade Act
The practice
Working tools
The things we would otherwise work out for you on a call.
We got tired of doing the same four sums by hand, so we built them. A limitation date, a pre-deposit figure, the next filing, and a read on what to do first. They run in your browser, they send nothing anywhere, and every answer prints the provision behind it so you can check our working, not just trust it.
Limitation calculator
Enter one date and get every period that runs from it, each line carrying the provision it came from.
- Thirty events across the Customs Act, the CGST Act, the Foreign Trade Act and the SEZ Rules.
Open the tool
Appeal and pre-deposit planner
The forum, the last date, and the money you actually have to put down before the appeal is admitted.
- Statutory percentage, ceiling and arithmetic, all shown.
Open the tool
Compliance calendar
What falls due in the next ninety days across GST, Customs, foreign trade and SEZ.
- Filter by regime. Ordinary dates, stated as ordinary dates.
Open the tool
Matter triage
Something arrived. This tells you where it sits, what the clock is, and what the first week looks like.
- Eight starting points, from an informal call to a bank attachment.
Open the tool
General information about procedure. Not advice, and not a substitute for reading the provision that applies to your matter.
Why preventive
The same matter costs a fraction at the query stage that it costs at the Tribunal. And the facts never improve on the way up.
Nearly every demand we see was answerable at the moment someone first asked a question. Reconcile the figures, file on time, attach the documents, and a great many matters simply end there, instead of taking five years and a cash pre-deposit to end the same way.
We read the file before we form a view
The first thing we do is reconstruct the transaction from your own records. Not from the notice, and not from what the department says happened. Almost every useful point is already in the papers.
We separate what is arguable from what is not
Paying the part that is genuinely payable, early, is usually the cheapest move available. It cuts penalty, narrows the argument, and makes the rest of the reply credible.
We write for the person who reads it in year five
The reply is the record. Whatever you will want to rely on at the Tribunal has to be in the reply, with the document behind it, because you rarely get to add it later.
We tell you when you do not need us
Some matters are answered by a two page letter and a reconciliation. We would rather say that than bill for the alternative.
Who we work with
Businesses that move goods, earn foreign exchange, or hold an authorisation.
Different shapes of business, one thing in common: the risk sits in the supply chain, not the balance sheet, and it tends to surface when you are busiest.
Insights
Working notes, not commentary.
Written for the person who has the notice in front of them and a date to meet.
Procedure9 min read
Appeals8 min read
What an appeal actually costs before it is heard
Pre-deposit arithmetic under both regimes, the ceilings, the difference between an additional deposit and a total one, and the windows that no authority can extend.
Read the note
Customs10 min read
Related party imports: what the valuation file should contain
A Special Valuation Branch reference is a process, not an accusation. What goes into the reply, why royalties are the hard part, and how a loading survives for years.
Read the note
Bring it to us while it is still a question.
A first conversation costs you nothing but the hour, and it is where we tell you honestly whether the matter needs us at all.