2005 (11) TMI 341

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..... Bhaghya Devi, SDR, for the Respondent. [Order]. -  During the material period, the appellants were engaged in the activity of buying tea leaves, processing the same in their factory and clearing the processed tea for home consumption. Officers of Central Excise, who visited the mill on 8-2-2001, found that the appellants had not paid duty on their product for the period October, 2000 ....

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.... this connection, ld. consultant has relied on the Tribunal's decision in Sports & Leisure Apparel Ltd. v. CCE, Noida, 2005 (180) E.L.T. 429 (Tri. - Del.), wherein a penalty imposed on the assessee under Section 11AC was set aside on the ground that the party had wrongly, but in a bona fide manner, interpreted an Exemption Notification and had believed that the exemption was available to the clear....

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....rms of the Notification. As per the aforesaid condition, the factory should have been working for at least 6 months preceding 1-4-2000. Admittedly, the appellants started their factory only on 31-3-2000. Thus there was, clearly, non-fulfilment of the aforesaid condition and, consequently, the benefit of exemption under the Notification was not available to the goods cleared during the period of di....

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.... period of 1 month from the date of receipt of OIO. In the circumstances, the order of the lower appellate authority giving the benefit of the first proviso to Section 11AC(1) to the assessee is unassailable. According to the said proviso, where any amount of duty determined by a Central Excise officer under Section 11A(2) is paid within 30 days from the date of communication of the order of the C....