https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=4289 Penalty under the Central Excise regime cannot be sustained merely because duty and wrongly availed credit were deposited before the show cause notice. Liability depends on proof of the statutory ingredients of fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement, suppression of facts, or contravention with intent to evade duty. Where the authorities record no factual finding establishing those elements, the penalty provision does not apply, even if payment was made before notice. On the facts stated, no such finding existed and the duty had already been paid, so penalty and interest were not leviable. en-us Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=4289 Penalty under the Central Excise regime cannot be sustained merely because duty and wrongly availed credit were deposited before the show cause notice. Liability depends on proof of the statutory ingredients of fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement, suppression of facts, or contravention with intent to evade duty. Where the authorities record no factual finding establishing those elements, the penalty provision does not apply, even if payment was made before notice. On the facts stated, no such finding existed and the duty had already been paid, so penalty and interest were not leviable. Case-Laws Central Excise Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=4289