TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (2) TMI 35
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.... respondent dated 5 March 2013. The petitioners also seek a refund of the amounts which have been collected or, as the case may be, deducted from their accounts in pursuance of the recovery memo. The petitioners are traders in coal who entered into commercial contracts with Eastern Coalfields Ltd. (respondent no.3) and Central Coalfields Ltd. (respondent no.6) under a Spot E-Auction Scheme, 2007. With effect from 1 March 2011, as a result of the Finance Act, 2011, the central excise duty became payable on coal. The expression "transaction value" in section 4(3)(d) of the Central Excise Act, 19441 provides as follows: "transaction value" means the price actually paid or payable for the goods, when sold, and includes in addition to t....
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....es) of the concerned coal company, who would deal with the same in a period of one month from such representation. Thereafter, if required the matter be determined by the Director-In-Charge of Marketing of the concerned coal company. Any interpretation of any clause of this will be subject to clarification by CIL, which will be deemed as firm and final. All disputes arising out of this scheme, or in relation thereto in any form whatsoever shall be dealt exclusively by way of arbitration shall be conducted at Calcutta at a place to be notified by CIL. The arbitrator shall be appointed by the Chairman and Managing Director, CIL upon written request in this behalf. The award rendered by the Arbitrator shall be final and binding on the parties.....
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....ncing payment to the exchequer, to the first respondent so as to enable the first respondent to transmit them to the Directorate General of the Central Excise Intelligence, New Delhi. Similarly a direction was issued to consider royalty and stowing charges (transcribed as Stowing Excise Duty) for the purpose of arriving at the assessable value for levy of central excise duty in all coal sales bills on and from 1 March 2013. Following this, notices have been issued by the coal companies to coal traders, who have lifted coal between the period of March 2011 and February 2013, to deposit the differential excise duty on royalty as well as the sales tax thereon for the relevant period. At the outset, it must be noted that the Supreme Court....
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....t, as a matter of principle, excluded under Article 226 of the Constitution, the fact that the purchases were made not in pursuance of statutory contracts but contracts of a commercial nature is a factor which must be placed in the balance. The purchases have been made in pursuance of the Spot E-Auction Scheme, 2007, clause 4.4. of which required the buyers while quoting their bid price to submit the bid price as a base coal price on FOR/FOB colliery basis, exclusive of other charges like statutory levies, taxes, cess, royalty and stowing excise duty and other charges, as would be applicable at the time of delivery. These charges, were to be on the buyers' account. At this stage, another circumstance which would have a bearing on whethe....