CENVAT credit on inputs for job work manufacture remains admissible where statutory position is unchanged and earlier rulings bind later periods.

CENVAT credit on duty paid furnace oil and oxygen used in job work manufacture remained admissible where the finished goods were cleared without payment of duty under Notification No. 214/86-CE. The Tribunal noted that the issue had already been decided in favour of the assessee by a Larger Bench and a High Court, and no change in law or in the notification language justified a different view. Earlier favourable rulings could not be ignored merely because the dispute related to a later period. The impugned order was set aside and the assessee's appeal was allowed with consequential relief.

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Issues: (i) Whether CENVAT credit on duty paid furnace oil and oxygen used in job work manufacture was admissible when the finished goods were cleared without payment of duty under Notification No. 214/86-CE; (ii) whether the earlier decisions in the assessee's favour could be ignored merely because the period involved in the present dispute was later.

Issue (i): Whether CENVAT credit on duty paid furnace oil and oxygen used in job work manufacture was admissible when the finished goods were cleared without payment of duty under Notification No. 214/86-CE.

Analysis: The issue had already been decided in favour of the assessee by the Larger Bench decision of the Tribunal and by the High Court decision referred to in the order. The appellate authority itself accepted that the issue stood decided, and no change in the legal position or in the wording of Notification No. 214/86-CE was shown to justify a different view.

Conclusion: CENVAT credit was admissible and the finding was in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the earlier decisions in the assessee's favour could be ignored merely because the period involved in the present dispute was later.

Analysis: The only reason given for denying relief was that the earlier cases related to an earlier period. In the absence of any change in law or notification language, the same ratio continued to apply, and the earlier rulings could not be discarded on that ground alone.

Conclusion: The earlier decisions remained applicable, and the contrary view was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the assessee's appeal was allowed with consequential relief.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statutory position remains unchanged, an earlier binding decision on admissibility of credit cannot be disregarded merely because the dispute relates to a subsequent period.

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