Tribunal rules sugar cess falls under excise duty, non-appealable issue.

The Tribunal dismissed the ROM application filed by the Revenue seeking rectification of the order in Appeal No. E/10489/2018. The Tribunal affirmed that sugar cess is considered a duty of excise under the Central Excise Act, 1944, based on a judgment by the Karnataka High Court. Therefore, matters related to the rebate of sugar cess fall within the scope of non-appealable issues before the Tribunal. Similarly, in another case (E/10218/2015-DB), the Tribunal also deemed an appeal regarding rebate of sugar cess as non-maintainable due to its classification as a duty of excise.

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Issues involved:
1. Maintainability of appeal regarding rebate of sugar cess under Central Excise Act, 1944.

Analysis:
The Revenue filed a ROM application seeking rectification of the Tribunal's order in Appeal No. E/10489/2018, contending that the appeal was dismissed as non-maintainable due to the issue of rebate of sugar cess. The Revenue argued that sugar cess is not a duty of excise, making the appeal maintainable before the Tribunal. The AR for the Revenue cited the proviso to Section 35B(1) to support their stance that only cases related to rebate of duty of excise are non-appellable, whereas in this case, it pertains to sugar cess, not a duty of excise, hence the appeal should be maintainable.

On the other hand, the respondent company's representative referred to a judgment by the Karnataka High Court in a similar case, indicating that the levy and collection of cess under the Central Excise Act, 1944, is considered as duty of excise on sugar. Therefore, the respondent argued that since sugar cess is a duty of excise, the appeal regarding the rebate of said duty is not maintainable before the Tribunal.

After considering both parties' submissions, the Tribunal noted the Karnataka High Court's decision in the appellant's case, affirming that sugar cess is indeed a duty of excise. Furthermore, the rebate claim was made under Rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules 2002, reinforcing the classification of sugar cess as a duty of excise. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that matters related to rebate duty, including sugar cess, are not appealable before them. Hence, the ROM application was dismissed as the Tribunal found no error in its original order.

Additionally, in reference to appeal No. E/10218/2015-DB involving a similar issue of rebate of sugar cess, which is considered a duty of excise, the Tribunal deemed the appeal non-maintainable. Therefore, the Revenue's appeal was also dismissed on the grounds of non-maintainability due to the nature of the issue involving sugar cess as a duty of excise.

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