TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2008 (2) TMI 63
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.... on these companies. In addition, there are three personal penalties of Rs. 5,000.00 (Rupees five thousand) each. The main dispute concerns interpretation of exemption Notification No. 8/04-CE. dated 21-1-2004 as amended by Notification No. 28/04-CE. dated 9-7-2004, the benefit of which has been claimed by the appellants and which has been denied by the Adjudicating Commissioner. The Notification in question provides a detailed mechanism under which tobacco products manufactured in the North-East Region are exempted provided an amount equal to the duty is deposited in an Escrow Account, which is required to be invested in the North-East Region comprising of States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripur....
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....tion regarding signing of a tripartite agreement, the appellants had signed the same and have submitted that though this was done at a later point of time, the same has been made applicable to the past period also. As regards the appellants' direction to the bank to put certain amount of money in an interest bearing account, Shri T.R. Rustagi, the learned Advocate appearing for the appellants states that the interest earned has also come back to the Escrow Account and was not withdrawn or misutilised by the appellants. He further states that there is no condition in the Notification that the amount should not earn any interest. Along with the written submissions, the appellants have also enclosed a copy of the letter dated 31-7-2006 from th....
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....priated or diverted, but has only added to the amount in the Escrow Account and therefore, has made available a greater amount of money for being spent for the development purposes in the North-East Region thereby fulfilling the objective of the Notification to a greater extent. We are of the opinion that the Adjudicating Commissioner has taken a very mechanical view of the matter. Senior officials of the department are expected to interpret exemption notifications such as the one under consideration intended to further the developmental interest of a region in a more pragmatic and liberal way. Had the appropriate amount on money not been deposited in the Account or had any portion of the amount or interest thereon been misutilised or wrong....