2001 (12) TMI 702

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....ot satisfy the condition laid down in Para 4 of Notification No. 58/97-C.E., dated 30-8-97. The adjudicating authority imposed a total penalty of Rs. 25,000/- on the applicants, which has been reduced to Rs. 20,000/- by the lower appellate authority. 3. Ld. Advocate, Shri Ajay Jain for the applicants submits that the deemed Modvat credits in question were taken on the strength of invoices issued by various input-manufacturers operating under the Compounded Levy Scheme of Rule 96ZP read with Section 3A of the Central Excise Act. He submits that, as all the invoices contained remarks reading "duty liability to be discharged under Rule 96ZP(3)", the applicants produced certificates issued by the input-manufacturers certifying to the ef....

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....pacity of production by the jurisdictional Commissioner. Ld. Counsel submits that these circumstances were beyond the control of the applicants and cannot be held out as a valid ground for denying the Modvat credit. Counsel, therefore, prays for complate waiver of pre-deposit and stay of recovery in respect of the duty and penalty amounts. Counsel has also relied on previous stay orders passed by this Bench in similar cases. 4. Ld. SDR, Shri A.S. Bedi, at the outset, submits that the cited cases are factually different from the instant one. He submits that the invoices of input-manufacturers did not meet the mandatory condition laid down in para 4 of the Notification. The requirement was that the invoice should contain a declaration....

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....examined the submissions, I find that in respect of an amount of Rs. 1,22,815.40 certificates from the input-manufacturers' Range Office were produced. But deemed credit was disallowed on the basis of a finding that the certificates did not categorically say that appropriate duty of excise had been paid by the input-manufacturers for the relevant periods. I am, prima facie, of the view that the certificates (copies available on record and perused) ought to have been favourably considered by the authorities while examining the admissibility of deemed Modvat credit. As regards the balance amount of Rs. 3,17,171.28/- such certificates were not produced by the party, though they had produced certificates from the input-manufacturers themselves.....