ORDER
Archana Wadhwa, Member (J)
1. The challenge in the present appeal is only to penalty of Rs. 26,800/- imposed under the provision of Section 76 of the Finance Act, 1994 on the ground of late deposit of service tax and late filing of returns. There is a delay of 268 days in depositing the return and the penalty has been imposed in terms of the said Section @ of Rs. 100 per day.
2. It is the contention of the appellant through their authorised representative Shri K. Shashi Kumar that the tax was deposited by them on quarterly basis instead of monthly basis. The above act was on account of the advice given by the consultant. Reference has been drawn to the letter written by the said consultant stating that the tax is to deposited by the 25th day of the month following the quarter. Further inasmuch as they realised that the tax is to be filed on monthly basis, they rectified their mistake and paid the interest also. In the circumstance, since there was no mala fide intention on their part, he prayed for reduction of penalty.
3. After hearing the Id. JDR Chandan, I find that Section 76 of the Act lays down the maximum penalty to be imposed. In the present case the late filing of the return and late deposit of the tax was as a result of advice given by a tax consultant and cannot be considered as mala fide on the part of the appellant. Accordingly after taking into consideration the entire facts and circumstances of the case, I reduce the penalty to Rs. 5,000. But for the above modification in the quantum of penalty, the appeal is otherwise rejected.