AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (5) TMI 1190
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....iii) The officers of DGCEI, Raipur, based on certain intelligence, conducted search and inquiry on 30/31.12.2011 with reference to the activities of M/s Indian Steel and Power Pvt. Ltd., Raipur (hereinafter also referred to as the said company/ISPPL). During the course of verification of the documents and Pen Drive recovered from the city office of the ISPPL, the officers recovered certain details of clearances of consignments of sponge iron from the ledger account of "Sales Local" for the year 2011-12. These clearances were suspected to be without payment of duty. Among such clearances, 266.890 MTs of sponge iron were said to have been cleared to the Appellant No. 1 also. (iv) During the course of investigation, Shri Pankaj Jain, Director of the said company, ISPPL in his statement dated 5.1.2012 recorded under Section 14 of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), admitted such clearances of 266.890 MTs of sponge iron to the Appellant No. 1 without payment of duty. Similarly, Shri Deepak Agrawal, Director of the Appellant No. 1, also admitted, in his statement dated 10.2.2012 recorded under Section 14 of the Act, the receipt of the above sponge iron in ....
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.... under free will and was recorded under duress. (ix) In the circumstances, no duty can be demanded from the appellant and no penalty can be imposed upon them. The demand is also barred by limitation. 5. Revenue has been represented by ld. DR, Shri G.R. Singh. Based on the written submissions, he mainly submits as under : (i) It is undoubtedly true that the appellant has received 266.890 MTs of sponge iron from the said company, i.e. ISPPL, without cover of Central Excise invoices and without payment of Central Excise duty leviable thereon. The appellant has used the same for manufacture of 233.033 MTs of re-rolled products of iron and steel and subsequently removed clandestinely the said products valued at Rs. 87,60,913/- from their factory premises without accounting for the said inputs and final products in their statutory records and without issuing invoices and without payment of duty leviable thereon. (ii) The facts of clandestine removal of 266.890 MTs of sponge iron from the said company, i.e. ISPPL, to the appellant without cover of Central Excise invoices and without payment of Central Excise duty leviable thereon have been admitted by Shri Pankaj Jain, Director of M/s....
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....ine removal of the final products without payment of duty and has paid the duty of Rs. 9,02,374/- (including Ed. Cess & SHE Cess) vide Challan No. 50070 dated 15.2.2012 without any protest before issue of show cause notice dated 30.9.2013. (vii) The contention of the appellant that the investigating authorities did not find any discrepancy in the records of the appellant has no merit at all, for that no person, who is engaged in the clandestine manufacture and removal of the goods without payment of duty, keeps such records. Either all such records are destroyed or kept stealthily/secretly in order of avoid any detection by any agency. (viii) Reliance is placed upon the cases of Moontex Dyeing & Printing Works Vs. Commissioner of Central Excise, Surat - 2007 (215) ELT 46 (Tri.-Ahmd.), Commissioner of Central Excise, Ahmedabad Vs. Tirupati Processors - 2007 (212) ELT 330 (Tri.-Ahmd.) and Commissioner of Central Excise, Ludhiana Vs. APS Associates Pvt. Ltd. - 2015 (317) ELT 740 (Tri.-Del.). The inference that can be drawn from these judgements that when the appellant has neither questioned the authenticity of documents resumed from the said company be seeking cross-examination of S....
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....he facts and the leviability of demand of Central Excise duty in this regard, the Order-in-Original No. 57/2015 dated 27.5.2015 has observed that: "18.4 On perusal of the case records, I find that the Noticee No. 1 have procured/purchased 266.890 MT of sponge iron from M/s Indian Steel, Raipur; that the said quantity of sponge iron have been cleared/sold clandestinely without payment of duty by M/s Indian Steel, Raipur. This fact of sale of sponge iron to the Noticee No. 1 is evident from the data retrieved from pen drives, recovered from the premises of M/s Indian Steel, Raipur, recorded under Section 14 of the Central Excise Act, 1944. I have gone through the "Ledger Account of Sales Local - Om Ganeshay Namah 2010 for the year 2011-12", as it is so named, one of the retrieved documents from the pen drive no. 1, recovered from the office premises of M/s Indian Steel, Raipur under Panchnama dated 3.1.2012. I find that this ledger, which reflects the invoice wise details of clearance of sponge iron by M/s Indian Steel, Raipur, has recorded the transactions pertaining to clearance/sale of total 266.890 MT of sponge iron value at total Rs. 56,36,716/- to the Noticee No. 1, vide....
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....e fact that he has not retracted his statement dated 10.2.2012 till date. Furthermore, he has not adduced any evidence in support of his said contention, and hence it merits rejection. In this case the ingredients of suppression of facts and contravention of provisions of law with intent to evade payment of duty are very much present and hence the aforesaid amount stands recoverable from the Noticee No. 1 by invoking the extended period of limitation as provided under sub-section (4) of Section 14 of the Central Excise Act, 1944. Held accordingly." 6.3 The Commissioner (Appeals) also in this regard in the impugned Order-in-Appeal No. 118-16-17 dated 14.9.2016 in first para 8 (there are two paras numbered as 8) observes as under : "It has further been proved beyond doubt on the basis of entry in ledger accounts of sales, retrieved from the pen drive and the confessional statements of Shri Pankaj Jain, Director of M/s Indian Steels, Raipur and Shri Deepak Agrawal, one of the Director of the appellant which were not retracted also that the goods i.e. re-rolled products weighing 233.003 MT valued at Rs. 87,60,913/- were cleared without payment of Central Excise duty. Therefore, they ....