TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2016 (8) TMI 1112
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....ton on, the removal of Coal from their mine. 2. The Central Government issued Notification No. 28/2010-CE dated June 22, 2010 and Notification No. 29/2010-CE dated June 22, 2010 granting exemption from payment of Education Cess (hereinafter referred to E. Cess) and Secondary and Higher Education Cess (hereinafter referred to S.H.E Cess) respectively to goods on which Clean Energy Cess is leviable as - specified in the Tenth Schedule of the Finance Act, 2010, which, inter alia includes Coal. Coal was attracting Nil rate of duty upto Feb, 2011 in the First Schedule to CETA, 1985 with effect from March 01, 2011 the Finance Act, 2011 introduced Excise Duty on Coal, where under the manufacturer was granted an option of discharging Excise Duty either at the rate of: • 1% provided CENVAT credit of inputs, input services and capital goods used for production of coal is not availed or • 5% with the facility of CENVAT credit. In this regard, the Appellant classified the goods under Chapter Heading 2701 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1975 and obtained Central Excise Registration bearing No. AAACT8873FEM001. The Appe....
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....all goods specified in the Tenth Schedule to the Finance Act, 2010 (14 of 2010) from the Education Cess leviable thereon under the said sections 91 and 93 of the said Finance (No.2) Act. [F. No. 354/72/2010-TRU]" NTF. No. 29/2010-CE, DT. 22/06/2010 "G.S.R. (E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944) read with sections 136 and 138 of the Finance Act, 2007 (22 of 2007), the Central Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts all goods specified in the Tenth Schedule to the Finance Act, 2010 (14 of 2010) from the Higher Education Cess leviable thereon under the said sections 136 and 138 of the said Finance Act. [F. No. 354/72/2010-TRU]" 3. Education Cess is nothing but a surcharge and its levy is completely independent of the levy of excise duty. Its calculation is also independent of the quantum of excise duty, since it is a flat rate of 2% of the aggregate of all duties of excise levied and collected by the Central Government. The Education Cess has a relation to the quantum of duty, since it is calcu....
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....ainst the previous nil rate of duty with respect to the commodity "Coal" falling under Central Excise Tariff heading 2701 of the first Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act 1985. In view of this, the Coal produced by Appellant became subject to payment of Central Excise duty at the specified rate with effect from 1st March, 2011. Even after the specification of rate of duty of excise on coal as aforesaid the exemption Notifications No. 28/2010-CE and 29/2010-CE both dated 22.06.2010 have remained unaltered providing exemption of E. Cess and S.H.E. Cess not only in respect of Clean Energy Cess but also the on the central excise duty under the First Schedule by way of duty of excise. 7. The exemption Notifications 28 and 29 of 2010 dated 22.06.2010 use the expression "all goods specified in the Tenth Schedule to the Finance Act, 2010". The expression in the said Notification is qua the goods specified in the Tenth Schedule; that a blanket exemption has been given to the goods viz- coal; that advisedly the expression "all specified goods" in the Tenth Schedule is not employed but a much wider expression all goods specified in the Tenth Schedule. 8. Tenth Schedule....
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.... will have to be read into the Tenth Schedule and so done the exemption from E. Cess and S.H.E. Cess in terms of Notf. No. 28 and 29 (supra) would continue to be available for the aggregate of duties of excise levied by the Central Government even after 01-03-2011. Therefore, there could be no levy of E. Cess and S.H.E. Cess on the Central Excise duty rate introduced from 01-03-2011. 12. The Clean Energy Cess is a Cess has been introduced by the Ministry of Finance vide section 83 of Finance Act, 2010. As extracted above, in the Board Circular at Para 4.13 above the Clean Energy Cess was introduced as a duty of excise, which was subject to exemption under Notification No. 28 and 29/2010 dated 22.06.2010. 13. It was clarified by the Department vide F. No. 354/72/2010 TRU dated 24.6.2010 that the Clean Energy Cess is a duty of Excise. It is thus submitted that the E. Cess and S.H.E. Cess should apply merely because no excise duty rate was prescribed under Sec 3 of the Central Excise Act at the time when the said notifications were issued is legally unsustainable in view of the specific reference in the Tenth Schedule to the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tarif....
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....11 subsequently. 2. Clean Energy Cess was introduced in Budget 2010 and Exemption Notifications 28 and 29/2010 were issued on 22.06.2010, whereas on the same goods Central Excise duty was imposed for the first time in March, 2011 when the Tariff rate in the 1st Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act was brought from Nil to 5%. No Notification in 2010 can exempt a duty (basic excise duty) which was not in existence in 2010. Basic Excise duty on Coal was introduced from Budget 2011 and could not have been exempted by a Notification which was issued in the previous year. 3. In any case effect from April, 2013, M/s Singareni Collieries Co have been paying due Cess on BED on Coal produced on their own without any protest and without any dispute. It is further confirmed that other Coal producing Companies like M/s Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited, M/s Bharat Cooking Coal Limited (BCCL), Dhanbad etc., are also paying Education Cess and S.H.E. Cess on basic Excise duty on Coal since 01-03-2011. 4. The Board had clarified on 22nd September, 2015 after Chief Commissioner's Tariff Conference held at Pune on 16th & 17th September, 2015 that the exemption fr....
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....be applied and construed with respect to that Schedule only. VII) Section 83(5) of Chapter VII of Finance Act, 2010 clearly lays down that Clean Energy Cess shall be in addition to any Cess or duty leviable on the goods specified in the Tenth Schedule under any other law for the time being in force. This shows that Clean Energy Cess is only one of the duties of Excise leviable on Coal and is limited to the Tenth Schedule to Finance Act, 2010. An exemption from Educational Cess on Clean Energy Cess does not mean exemption of Education Cess from Basic Central Excise duty. VIII) The exemption from the goods specified under Tenth Schedule to Finance Act, 2010 cannot be extended to exemption on goods specified under First Schedule to Central Excise Tariff Act. IX) No Notification in 2010 can exempt a duty (basic excise duty) which was not in existence in 2010. Basic Excise duty on Coal was introduced from Budget 2011 and could not have been exempted by a Notification which was issued in the previous year. 6. Clean Energy Cess is required to be discharged on the quantity of coal produced, while basic Excise Duty is required to be calculated on the quan....
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....n environment or for any such related purposes. In many countries carbon taxes are levied also on other fossil fuels like petroleum, natural gas etc. This is in line with the principle of "polluter pays" which is the basic guiding criterion for pollution management. However, in India this is applied only on coal and its variants - lignite and peat. 7.1 This was introduced, with effect from 1^st July, 2010, through the Union Budget 2010-11, on coal produced in India or imported to India. Relevant portion of the Budget speech is reproduced to get the intention of the legislation: Environment 154. Harnessing renewable energy sources to reduce dependence on fossil fuels is now recognised as a credible strategy for combating global warming and climate change. To build the corpus of the National Clean Energy Fund announced earlier, I propose to levy a clean energy cess on coal produced in India at a nominal rate of Rs. 50 per tonne. This cess will also apply to imported coal. 7.2 Thus when imposed, Clean Energy Cess was levied for the purposes of financing and promoting clean energy initiatives and funding research in the area of clean energy. However, in the Unio....
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....SC 3499], 'When an earlier Act or certain of its provisions are incorporated into a later Act, the provisions so incorporated become part and parcel of the later Act as if they had been 'bodily transposed into it'. The result is to constitute the later Act which is not modified or repealed by a modification or repeal of the earlier Act'. (Narottamdas Vs State of M.P. [AIR 1964 SC 1667]), reiterated in Sneh Enterprises Vs Commissioner of Customs [(2006) 7 SCC 714]. 11, In the instant case, the impugned Section 83 of the Finance Act, 2010 and the related Tenth Schedule thereof have merely incorporated specific and limited provisions of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985. For example Subsection 7 of Section 83 provides for issue of notification to make applicable specifically listed provisions of the Central Excise Act, relating to levy of exemption from duty of excise, refund, offences and penalties, confiscation and procedure relating to offences and appeals, with such modifications and alterations as may be considered necessary. So also, the said Tenth Schedule specifically mentions that for the purpose of the Tenth Schedule, "Chapter", "hea....
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....Clean Energy Cess is leviable, the rules for interpretation and the classification methodology of the Tariff Act are followed. This will not however mean, for the reasons discussed above, that whenever there is an increase or decrease in the rates of E. Cess and S.H.E. Cess leviable on Clean Energy Cess there will be a domino effect on the rates of E. Cess and S.H.E. Cess leviable on Central Excise duty per se. Thus we are of the considered opinion that the aforesaid relevant portions of Section 83 and Tenth Schedule are in the nature of legislation by incorporation only and not legislation by reference as vigorously argued by the Learned Counsel. 15. On the other hand, considerable merit is found in the arguments put forth by the department. We find ourselves in agreement with the submission of the Learned AR that Section 83(5) of Finance Act, 2010 clearly lays down that Clean Energy Cess shall be in addition to any Cess or Duty leviable on the goods specified in the Tenth Schedule or under any other law for the time being in force, which shows that Clean Energy Cess is only one of the duties of Excise leviable on coal, limited to the said Tenth Schedule. Hence, an exemption fr....
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.... may be prevailing then. It is only when a new duty of excise is levied, whether special duty of excise or auxiliary duty of excise or any other kind of duty of excise, that a question could arise whether any particular article should be exempted from payment of such duty of excise and the Central Government would then have to apply its mind to this question and having regard to the nature and extent of such duty of excise and the object and purpose for which it is levied and the economic situation including supply and demand position then prevailing, decide whether exemption from payment of such excise duty should be granted and if so, to what extent. It would be absurd to suggest that by issuing the notification dated 1^st August, 1974 the Central Government intended to grant exemption not only in respect of excise duty then prevailing but also in respect of all future duties of excise which may be levied from time to time. 17. This dictum has been followed in many subsequent judgments, for example by the Hon'ble High Court of Sikkim in Unicorn Industries vs UOI [2015 (324) ELT 498 (Sikkim)] and by the Hon'ble High court of in Riba Textiles vs Cestat, New Delhi [2015 (....
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....tification which exempted Clean Energy Cess from E. Cess and S.H.E. Cess. 18.1 For the sake of clarity on this finding, relevant portions of the Joint Secretary, TRU I, CBEC, Ministry of Finance, summarizing the Budget 2015 proposals are reproduced below: Letter D.O.F.N0.334/5/2015-TRU New Delhi the 28th February, 2015, of the Joint Secretary, TRU l, CBEC, Ministry of Finance Dear Chief Commissioner/ Principal Commissioner, The Finance Minister has introduced the Finance Bill, 2015 in Lok Sabha today, i.e., 28th February, 2015. Changes in Customs and Central Excise law and rates of duty have been proposed through the Finance Bill, 2015 (clauses 80 to 89, 163, 164 for Customs and clauses 90 to 104, 163, 164, 184 and 188 for Central Excise). 2 Important changes in respect of Customs and Central Excise duty and legislative changes are contained in the four Annexes appended to this letter: I) Annex I contains Chapter wise changes relating to Customs; (ii) Annex II contains Chapter wise changes relating to Central Excise: Education Cess and Secondary & Higher Education Cess leviable on all excisable goods are being fully exempted.....