2014 (9) TMI 868

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....certain finished goods found short at the time of investigation by Central Excise officers along with equal amount of penalty. Redemption fine of Rs. 9,59,625/- has also been imposed on certain finished goods found in excess. 2. The appellants have contended that the said discrepancy was caused due to the mental stress of the concerned officer in charge of maintaining the statutory records because his wife and son had disappeared. They referred to the judgment in the case of Ranasaria Polypack Pvt. Ltd. Vs. CCE, Ahmedabad - 2009 (247) ELT 700 (Tri.-Ahmd.) in their support. The ld. Advocate also referred to the judgment in the cases of CCE Vs. S. Channi Steel Pvt. Ltd. - 2010 (260) ELT 174 (P&H) and CCE Kanpur Vs. Minakshi Castings - 2011....

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....rtage/excess and the Panchnama recording the said excess/shortage has never been questioned by the appellants. The CESTAT judgement in the case of Ranasaria Polypack Pvt. Ltd. (supra) cited by the appellant deals with different facts as in that case CESTAT found that it was impossible for the officers to carry out the stock taking in such a short span of time. In the present case there is no such situation averred. The appellants also cited judgement of Allahabad High Court in the case of CCE, Kanpur Vs. Minakshi Castings - 2011 (274) ELT 180 (Alld.) wherein it has been held that shortages of finished goods, without evidence of clandestine removal does not lead to inference of evasion of duty and no penalty is imposable but in that case the....

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....bsp;            4. I have heard both the sides and gone through the record. The facts are not much in dispute. The officers of the Central Excise visited the factory premises of the respondents on 17-12-97 wherein they were engaged in the manufacture of solvent oil. On carrying out the stock verification of the raw-material, shortage involving Modvat credit of Rs. 43,830/- was found and this fact was admitted at the spot by the authorised signatory of the appellants who was present there at that time. The respondents accordingly even reversed the Modvat credit. Ld. Commissioner (Appeals) has dropped the recovery of the amount on the ground that the shortage was explained by the responde....