2015 (9) TMI 926
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.... of MS rolled products, raw material is MS ingots which they purchased from the various ingots manufacturers. One of the raw material suppliers is M/s.Nirmal lnductomelt Pvt.Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as NIPL). The premises of NIPL were searched by the Central Excise officers and on examination of their record, it was found that NIPL cleared 160.73 MT of MS ingots to the respondent company during the period 2.8.2005 to 1.10.2005 whereas in the record of the respondent company the actual receipt of only 100.27 MT of MS ingots was shown to be from NIPL. The remaining quantity 60.46 MT of MS ingots appeared to have been received without payment of duty from NIPL. It was also noticed that the quantity of 60.46 MT received from NIPL was not e....
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....ction determined in this manner, the duty of Rs. 3,71,24,264/- has been demanded on the alleged clandestine removal of rolled products. The matter was adjudicated by the Commissioner vide Order-in-Original dated 28.12.12 by which the Commissioner dropped the proceedings against the respondent. 1.3 The above order of the Commissioner was reviewed by the Committee of Chief Commissioners and the Committee of Chief Commissioners passed an order directing the Commissioner, Jaipur to file an appeal to the Tribunal for correct determination of certain point arising out of this impugned order as mentioned in the review order. This order had been passed by the Committee of Chief commissioners under section 35E(1). In pursuance of this review order ....
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.... in case of R.A. Casting Ltd. Vs. CCE, Meerut reported in 2009 (237) ELT 674 (Tri.-Del.) is not correct and that this judgement of the Tribunal is not applicable to this case as the power consumption is not the sole evidence and it is corroborated by the evidence of purchase of unaccounted raw materials together with confessional statements of the supplier unit -NIPL. He, therefore, pleaded that the impugned order is not correct. 4. Shri Bipin Garg, the learned Counsel for the respondent, pleaded that the allegation of receiving 60.46 MT of unaccounted MS ingots during the period from August, 05 to October, 05 is based only on the entries of ledger book account of NIPL, that these documents recovered from a third party cannot be used again....
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....nt is totally arbitrary, that if the production is estimated on the basis of power consumption of 225 units per MT as mentioned in the Rajasthan Government's notification, there would be no unaccounted production, that allegation of unaccounted production merely on the basis of power consumption norm of another rolling mill, is not sustainable, that in this regard, that he relies upon the judgement of Hon'ble Allahabad High Court in the case of CCE, Meerut-I vs. R.A.Castings Pvt.Ltd. reported in 2011 (269) ELT 337 (Alld.) and an SLP filed by the department against the order of the High Court has been dismissed by the judgement of Apex Court reported in 2011 (269) ELT A-108 (SC), and that in view of this, there is no merit in the app....
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....od, the respondent received 60.46 MT of MS Ingots from NIPL without any invoices. It is well settled law that on the basis of records recovered from a third party, the allegation of duty evasion cannot be made against an assessee unless cross examination of the persons from whom possession the records had been recovered, has been allowed, which has not been done in this case. Moreover, just because, M/s.NIPL had filed application before the settlement commission and had admitted certain quantum of duty evasion, it cannot be treated as an admission of receipt of unaccounted MS ingots by the respondent, and in this regard, we are supported by the decision of the larger bench of the Tribunal in the case of Bosch Chassis Systems India Ltd. Vs. ....
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....ion. Besides this, we also find that that National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology, established by the Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India conducted a study and submitted a technical report on performance, and energy consumption of re-rolling mills, where electricity consumption was arrived at 215 units per MT and Government of Rajasthan in the notification issued under compounded levy scheme for charging sales tax from rolling mills has mentioned power consumption of the medium size rolling mill as 225 units per MT. In view of this, there is absolutely no justification for adopting power consumption norm of 102.09 units per MT of M/s.SSSRM in respect of the respondent. Ld.DR has cited the judgement of the Apex Court in the case of Tr....