Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday sought to rest the controversy regarding the Rs 803 crore excise duty wrangle with cigarette major ITC by stating that the settlement was in accordance with what was ‘‘suggested’’ by the Supreme Court during the course of the hearing of the case. The government and ITC have signed an agreement that the company would not press for the refund of the Rs 350 crore of the disputed amount it had already paid the government and the government in turn would not press for any further proceedings in the case.He said following the Cabinet decision of March 16 ‘‘we told ITC that we are willing to accept the offer provided they go through the process of recording the settlement in proper form, without prejudice to the Ordinance.’’The MoF had promulgated an Ordinance on January 25 to ‘‘retrospectively amend the notification’’ on excise which had led to the dispute with ITC. But the government did not introduce a Bill to replace the Ordinance in Paliament when it was in session on grounds that it ‘‘did not want any confrontation with the judiciary, especially after the Jharkhand episode.’’The FM now defended the Ordinance stating that during the hearing of the case in 2003-04, the SC had suggested settlement between the excise department and ITC on the demand for Rs 803 crore duty between 1984 and 1987. But after the Centre said it wanted a judgement, it favoured ITC.
