TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (11) TMI 1285
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....l Excise Officers visited the appellants factory and they surveyed the factory and found a private notebook kept in the table near the manufacturing machines. The said officers seized the notebook. On 16.07.2009, the officers recorded statement of Smt. T. Rajeswari, Licensee, who stated that she could not run factory due to ill-health and her son Shri T. Ramkumar is in-charge of the factory and on the same day the statement of Shri T. Ramkumar was recorded. A Show Cause Notice dated 11.04.2011 was issued proposing demand of duty alongwith interest and to impose penalties on the basis of the private notebook. The adjudicating authority confirmed the demand of duty of Rs.2,67,171/- along with interest and also imposed penalty of equal amount....
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.... modus operandi of the clearances of the goods on the basis of the notebook. He also submits that Shri T. Ramkumar retracted his statement in reply to the Show Cause Notice filed on 02.06.2011. He relied on various case laws. He further submits that the cross-examination of witnesses is allowed depending upon the facts of each case. It is submitted that in the present case, the owner of the goods Shri T. Ramkumar already admitted the recovery of the notebook, and as such, there is no necessity for cross-examination of mahazar witnesses. In this regard, he relied upon the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case of Harvinder Singh Vs Assistant Collector of Customs, Amritsar reported in 2010 (256) E.L.T.714 (P & H). 5. After....
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.... 98363 kgs. whereas the quantity entered in the Dipped Splint Register is written as 23860 kgs. and found a difference of 74503 kgs. You asked the reason for this abnormal variation between the entries written in the notebook maintained at the machine and the statutory Dipped Splints Register maintained at our factory. For that I have replied that due to adverse market condition I cannot run the factory in a profitable manner and I have been forced to sell the dipped splints as such without converting it into match bundles illicitly without payment of duty and then only I could run the factory with a profitable margin. Moreover, you have noticed that some entries were written about the sale of dipped splints in the notebook at the machine s....
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....heir factory. They requested for cross-examination of the mahazar witnesses to establish that the notebook was not recovered at their factory. I find that mahazar was signed by Shri T. Ramkumar son of the Licensee along with other two witnesses. It is noted that Shri T. Ramkumar had admitted the recovery of the notebook from their factory and had given detailed reasons for the clearance of the goods, without payment of duty as is evident from the notebook. This statement was retracted at the time of filing the reply after about one year. Taking into account of the statement of Shri T. Ramkumar, who has signed the mahazar and the statement of Smt. Rajeswari after three days of the seizure of the notebook, it is established recovery of the no....