Statutory production records prevail over third-party sales figures absent corroboration of suppressed manufacture or clearance.

Third-party sales figures for a non-alcoholic beverage base could not displace statutory production records in RG-1 and RT-12 where the monthly returns had been regularly assessed and no independent evidence showed suppressed manufacture or clearance. The Tribunal found no corroboration on raw material procurement, production, removals, transport, or monetary flows to support the alleged shortfall, so the demand rested on presumption alone. Duty demands and penalties were therefore unsustainable and were set aside, with consequential relief to the assessees.

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Issues: Whether the sales figures furnished to the supplier of non-alcoholic beverage base could be preferred over the statutory production records in RG-1 and RT-12 for determining duty liability, and whether a demand founded only on such comparison and unsupported by corroborative evidence was sustainable.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that the jurisdictional range superintendent had regularly assessed the monthly RT-12 returns during the relevant period, and it was not open to presume understatement of production merely because higher sales figures were available with the supplier of concentrate. The Tribunal found that the figures in the supplier's records could not be treated as more authentic than the statutory records maintained by the manufacturers and reflected in RT-12. It also noted the absence of evidence regarding procurement of raw materials, manufacture, clearances, transportation, or monetary transactions corresponding to the alleged suppressed quantity. The demands were therefore based only on presumption.

Conclusion: The duty demands and penalties were held unsustainable and were set aside, with consequential relief granted to the assessees.

Final Conclusion: The appeals succeeded because the impugned demands rested on uncorroborated assumptions and could not displace the statutory records maintained and filed in the ordinary course.

Ratio Decidendi: A demand of central excise duty cannot be sustained merely on the basis of third-party sales figures unless supported by independent corroborative evidence that discredits the statutory production records and establishes suppression of manufacture or clearance.

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