2017 (3) TMI 1129

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....ity Rules), 1977, have the 'retail selling price' affixed on the packing. At stake is the differential duty of Rs. 53,40,816 confirmed as recoverable owing to assessment having been made under section 4 of Central Excise Act, 1944 on clearances effected by appellant, M/s Charms Cosmetics Pvt Ltd, during the period between March 2002 and March 2004. 2. The appellant manufactures toothpastes in tubes branded as 'Calcium Prudent' - of 18 gm in boxes containing 576 tubes and of 200 gm in boxes containing 72 tubes - and 'Oral-B Mild Mint' - of 100 gm in boxes containing 72 tubes - for their customer, M/s Gillette Diversified Operations Ltd, who, in turn, supplies these to Canteen Stores Department (CSD) of Ministry of Defence, Government of I....

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....s that are procured by the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) which the impugned goods are not. 5. Assessee, on the other hand, contends that the circular supra applies to their clearances and that supplies to Canteen Stores Department (CSD) are not required to carry maximum retail price on their inner cartons. 6. Heard Learned Authorized Representative. 7. Section 4A of Central Excise Act, 1944 is not inseparable from the statute, in all its avatars, governing legal metrology. It is to be invoked when the law relating to affixing of specified details, including 'maximum retail price', is mandated. It is now settled law that the benefit of assessment or the burden of dutiability under this special provision is to prevail when the tw....

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....34 and that, though the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) may qualify as an institution, the goods are not such as qualify for exclusion in accordance with the circular supra. 8. The onus for the affixing the 'maximum retail price', the sole prescription among the many that is pertinent to section 4A of Central Excise Act, 1944, rests not with the manufacturer but with the one who pre-packages the goods; to the extent that the two converge, the manufacturer is saddled with the responsibility to do so. The peculiarity of this consumer protection law is that an offence against this statute, if any, becomes visible only at the shelf of the retailer but the offence is attributed to the manufacturer or the entity that has packed the goods or al....

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.... Canteen Stores Department (CSD). It, therefore, arises for consideration whether the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) is a retailer. In the present dispute, if the provisions of law of legal metrology is enforceable by the legal metrology officers against the Canteen Stores Department (CSD), the Rules framed under Standards of Weights and Measures Act, 1976 is applicable to the impugned goods and, by extension, section 4A of Central Excise Act, 1944. 11. The Canteen Stores Department (CSD) is wing of the Ministry of Defence. It is a presidential artifice which is assigned to that Ministry in The Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. The organization service officers and staff of the armed forces of the Union and the c....