2017 (8) TMI 1168

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....ot for Retail sale bags viz. NFR Bags). They paid excise duty @ Rs. 600/- per tonne or 12% ad valorem on clearances made to retail customers depending on the quantity of cement sold. As regards sale to industrial/institutional customers and self-consumption, they availed exemption under Notification No.4/2007-CE dated 01.03.2007 and paid excise duty @ Rs. 400/- per tonne. During the impugned period, the Appellant claimed concessional rate of duty on 28,470.20 MT of cement cleared to various consumers. A Show Cause Notice No.03/2008 dated 08.04.2008 was issued alleging that only 2,980.95 MT of the said clearances, sold to M/s. Visaka Industries Ltd. & M/s.The Indian Hume Pipe Co. Ltd. can be said to been cleared to eligible consumers while 2....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....titutions Buildings/infrastructure 4,248.25 9. Hospitals Buildings/infrastructure 1,744.50 10. Societies Buildings 998.10 11. Self-consumption inside factory Construction & other purposes 945.05 12. Stock-in-transit/ closing stock at warehouses Unsold 632.30     Total 29,415.25 (ii) This table was submitted to the Commissioner and there is no dispute regarding the same. The only ground of denial is that the above categories do not constitute. (iii) The goods manufactured and cleared by them are classifiable in CETH 25232990 with tariff rate of Rs. 600/- per tonne during the impugned period, a fact which is not disputed. They claimed benefit of Notification No.4/2006-CE vide Entry 1C which provided for eff....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....sore Cements Ltd. Vs. CCE, 2010 (349) E.L.T. 398 (Tri. Bang.) viii. Grasim Industries Ltd. (Unit-I) Vs. CCE, 2009 (238) E.L.T. 655 (Tri. - Chennai) ix. Shree Cement Ltd. Vs. CCE, 2016-VIL-1020-CESTAT-DEL-CE x. Chettinad Cement Corp. Ltd. Vs. CCE, 2015 (329) E.L.T. 845 (Tri. - Chennai) xi. Grasim Industries Ltd. Vs. CCE, 2004 (175) E.L.T. 779 (Tri. Del.) (vii) In the instant case, the non-trade sector sale bags and relevant invoices are unambiguously marked as "SPECIALLY PACKED" "NOT FOR RETAIL SALE" "NOT FOR RESALE", and thus the requirement under Rule 34 of Packaged Commodities Rules has been complied with. It is thus submitted that the reliance on the case Grasim Industries Ltd. Vs. CCE, 2004 (175) E.L.T. 779 (Tri. Del.) is corr....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....ppellate decision in this appeal is whether the clearances of cement made by the appellant will satisfy the conditionalities of Entry 1C of Notification No.4/2006-CE dt. 01.03.2006 to benefit from reduced duty liability of Rs. 400 per ton. 4.2 As already seen above, the said entry 1C seeks to cover the following goods : "All goods, whether or not manufactured in a mini cement plant, not covered in S.No.1B, other than those cleared in packaged form;" Discernably, to benefit from the said exemption, the primary requirement is that the goods should not be "other than those cleared in packaged form" 4.3 The Third Proviso to the Entry 1C of the notification "clarifies which goods should be considered as cleared in other than packaged form". ....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....MTs (self-consumption) and 632.30 MTs (stock-in-transit closing stock at warehouse), the remaining portion of the disputed clearances totalling to 29415.25 MTs were sold either to manufacturers, users, asbestos and cement/pipe manufacturers, ready-mix concrete manufactures or otherwise to builders, as infrastructure/buildings/ government projects construction, educational institutions, hospitals and societies. From a combined reading of the above reproduced provisions of Rule 2A of the Rules, these genre of buyers would fall under the category of Institutional Consumer or Industrial Consumer, in our opinion. On this score itself, we find that the provisions applicable to packages intended for retail sale in Chapter II of the said rules, wil....

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....arly indicate that the word and between the two clauses have to be read disjunctively and not conjunctively. In other words, in respect of both the above categories, the provisions of PC Rules would not apply." 4.7 In the event, in respect of the clearances of 25489.250 MT (26434.30 MT Less 945.050 MT) referred to in the Annexure to the Show cause notice, these clearances will necessarily have to be held as packages not intended for retail sale and to which the provisions of Chapter II of the Rules shall not apply. In view of Rule 2A thereof, duty demands in respect of these clearances will therefore not sustain and will have to be set aside which we hereby do. So ordered. 4.8 In respect of remaining 945.05 MTs for self-consumption inside....