new delhi customs and tax authorities are unhappy with criticism of the governments decision to make certain offences under the customs act nonbailable citing that less than 10 people were arrested in cases of commercial fraud agencies said the cries of opposition to proposed provisions in the finance bill were being made by vested interests in september 2011 a supreme court bench headed by present chief justice of india altamas kabir had made all offences under the customs act bailable however in the 2012 budget the government through an amendment restored the status quo in offences inviting more than three years in jail making them nonbailable the opposition criticized the move with leader of opposition in rajya sabha arun jaitley comparing it to an antiterror law the government subsequently dropped the amendment presenting the 2013 budget finance minister p chidambaram proposed that duty evasion or even attempted evasion of over rs 50 lakh would now be nonbailable similarly failure to properly disclose import or export of goods worth over rs 1 crore would face the same treatment as would fraudulently claiming drawback or exemptions evasion of service tax especially nonpayment after collection was also put in the same category several voices in the industry criticized the move as retrograde and going against the nonadversarial tax regime central board of excise and customs cbec and agencies such as directorate of revenue intelligence however argue that perception of tax agencies as hostile harassers is a creation of vested interests as not more than 10 people are arrested in these cases according to dri figures during 201011 and 201112 when customs offences were still nonbailable close to 1100 cases of commercial fraud were registered involving evasion of over rs 2600 crore still less than 100 arrests were made in these cases this shows that the fear created is unfounded arrests are made only in cases where an organized gang outright smuggler or a repeat offender not ready to cooperate with investigations is involved it is done to ensure the offender does not run away or influence witnesses agencies never arrest people from established and big companies as they are always available also nonbailable does not mean the person will not be granted bail it only means he will be produced in court and the magistrate will grant him bail so have we lost faith in the courts as well a financial agency officer asked cbec chairman praveen mahajan has defended the provisions in the finance bill saying that there has been massive and blatant evasion of duties in the recent past and that there were enough safeguards in the new provisions for prevention of misuse speaking at ficci mahajan recently said we are nonadversarial power to arrest has been given to commissioner joint secretarylevel officer there are enough safeguards the provision will be reviewed from time to time so there is no reason to be concerned she also stressed that arrest provisions always existed in excise and customs and this was not a