Unutilized wrongly taken Cenvat credit cannot attract interest when reversal is directed and no utilisation is shown.

Interest was held not leviable on wrongly taken Cenvat credit where the credit had remained unutilized and was only directed to be reversed. The Tribunal treated the unutilised position as decisive and held that charging interest in such circumstances was not correct in law. The appellant could not show any infirmity in that finding, so the challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether interest is leviable on Cenvat credit which was found to be wrongly taken but was lying unutilized and ordered to be reversed.

Analysis: The Tribunal found that the credit had not been utilised and that the direction for reversal itself showed that the amount was lying unutilized. On that basis, it held that charging interest on such unutilized credit was not correct in law. The appellant was unable to show any infirmity in that finding.

Conclusion: Interest was not leviable on the unutilized Cenvat credit ordered to be reversed, and the appeal failed.

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