Suppressed removals proved by computer records and admissions justified excise demand, penalty and interest.

Central excise demand was upheld where computer printouts, buyers' statements, part-period invoices, labour job invoices and the director's admissions collectively corroborated suppressed removals. The record showed duplicate documents and parallel challans/invoices prepared at the company's instance, while mismatches in invoice numbers, dates and balance-sheet figures further supported the allegation. The assessee's failure to produce sale bills, purchase bills, sales and purchase registers and cash book, despite claiming they existed, justified adverse inference. On that evidence, the duty demand, along with penalty and interest, was sustained.

---

---

Issues: Whether the demand of central excise duty, along with penalty and interest, could be sustained on the basis of the computer printouts, buyers' statements, balance-sheet data and the Director's admissions, despite non-production of the assessee's contemporaneous records.

Analysis: The recovered computer sheets, the statements furnished by purchasers, the sales invoices for part of the period, and the invoices relating to labour job were treated as reliable corroborative material. The Director admitted that duplicate documents and parallel challans/invoices were prepared at the instance of the company, and that the computer printout reflected records maintained by the staff. The invoice-number/date mismatch and the disparity between recorded clearances and balance-sheet figures further supported the allegation of suppressed removals. The assessee's inability to produce sale bills, purchase bills, sales register, purchase register and cash book, though claimed to have been maintained, was held against it. In these circumstances, the assessee was not entitled to benefit of doubt, and the principle of adverse inference was applied against it.

Conclusion: The demand and the consequential penalty and interest were held sustainable, and the assessee's challenge failed.

---