TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2014 (7) TMI 745
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....xported and appellant was claiming the benefit of unutilized CENVAT credit as refund. During the verification of CENVAT credit taken for the period from April 2008 to September 2009, according to the Revenue it was found that the credit was taken more than once for the same invoice. Further it was also observed that credit could be taken only on or after the date on which payment is made for the value of input service and the service tax paid or payable. In this case, it was found that the assessee had availed credit before making payment to the vendors. It is not in dispute that the appellant had deposited the entire credit wrongly availed by them with interest even before proceedings were initiated. The appeal is only against imposition o....
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....d when the invoice was received for service charges and tax, not only they would make appropriate entries in the ledgers, but also they would take credit in the CENVAT credit account. When this was pointed out, in all cases where the appellant had taken credit before making the payment of service tax, they paid the amount with interest and the amount paid with interest has been accepted and there is no dispute. He also submitted that appellants used to have substantial credit accumulated during the relevant period and therefore there was no intentional evasion or there was excess utilization even after taking the admissible credit only into account. The appellant paid the tax with interest even though they had not utilized the credit in vie....
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..... For instance, when the cumulative total of credit utilization reached Rs. 24,57,513/- in December 2008, the irregular credit taken in the month of May 2008 stands utilized. It is pertinent to note that the scheme of cenvat credit indirectly recognizes the generally accepted FIFO principle as relevant. For instance, proviso to rule 3(4) of the rules stipulates that while paying duty of excise or service tax, the cenvat credit shall be utilized only to the extent such credit is available on the last day of the month or the quarter. We also like to reproduce the worksheet produced by the appellant which shows how and why the Commissioner's conclusion has become wrong. Statement of correct amount of Cenvat Credit for the period April 2008 t....
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.... examined the credit utilization is Rs. 24,57,513/- which is the cumulative total whereas if we see the table produced by the appellant, in the month of December 2008, appellant had opening balance of more than Rs. 1.55 crores and admissible credit for the month was more than Rs. 34,00,000/- and as against cumulative balance of credit of more than Rs. 1.89 crores, the appellant had utilized only Rs. 76.686/-. It can be seen that CENVAT credit utilization month-wise tallies in both the cases and revised CENVAT credit taken by the appellant as per the eligibility norms also tallies in both the statements. Because the Commissioner has adopted the method of taking the cumulative total of credit utilized which is not the criteria for examining t....