TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (4) TMI 1703
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....e appellants herein are engaged in the manufacture of pig iron using coal, iron ore, lime stone and dolomite as raw materials. The process of manufacture of coal in the appellant's factory uses 'coking coal' which is processed into hard coal which is known as coke. Thereafter, coke and sinter (made from pig iron from sintering plant) are put together in a blast furnace to produce pig iron. Coking coal is imported by the appellant from Australia. The dispute in this case is whether the benefit of Sl. No. 68 of the Notification No. 21/2002-Cus, dated 01.03.2002 is available to 'Dawson Weak Coking coal' imported by the appellant vide Bill of Entry No. 774695, dated 17.06.2010 or otherwise. This notification provided exemption from payment of d....
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....ose any redemption fine. He also imposed penalty of an amount equal to the duty demanded under section 112 of Customs Act, 1962. Hence this appeal by the assessee. The Department's appeal is on the grounds that the impugned order has not confirmed the demand of interest under section 28(1) which is not correct and that the Commissioner has also erred in not imposing redemption fine under section 125 of Customs Act, 1962 having ordered confiscation of the imported coal under section 111 (m). 4. Ld. Counsel for the appellant assessee would submit that the period of dispute is 01.03.2010 when coking coal of below 12% ash content was exempted vide notification No. 21/2002-Cus (Sl.No.68) and there was no other requirement that coking coal had....
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....as CSN on 24.03.2011, CSN more than 2 on 01.03.2011 etc. During the relevant period, the notification did not have any specific CSN number. Therefore, as long as the coal was accepted as coking coal in trade, they are entitled to the benefit of the exemption notification. It is not in dispute that they placed an order for coking coal and imported the same. It is also not in dispute that they are using imported coking coal to manufacture coke in their factory and in turn, using the coke to manufacture steel. Therefore, it is established that the coal which they have imported vide the bill of entry was coking coal. This is also substantiated even by the test report of the CRCL indicating CSN of 1.5. It is not clear as to why the Chemical Exam....
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....ed to the benefit of Sl. No. 68 of the Notification No. 21/2002-Cus, dated 01.03.2002 for the coal imported by them which was declared as coking coal by them and which the department, relying upon the test report of CRCL argues is not coking coal. We find that there was no statutory definition of what is a coking coal in the notification during the relevant period. During subsequent periods, the principal selling index has been tested as a parameter and for some time CSN '1' and at other item CSN '2' was prescribed. Since there was no parameter fixed during the relevant period, the entitlement of the exemption would solely depend whether it had less than 12% ash content and is known in the trade as coking coal. It is not in dispute that ass....
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.... imported by them. Therefore, the demand of duty vide the impugned order needs to be set aside and we do so. As the demand has been set aside, the question of interest or penalty also do not arise. 7. As far as the Department's appeal in C/2987/2011 is concerned, it is on two grounds (a) that no interest has been confirmed by the Commissioner and (b) that no redemption fine has been imposed by the Commissioner under section 125 of the Customs Act, after having confiscated the goods under section 111 (m) of the Customs act, 1962. As far as the interest element is concerned, since we have set aside the demand, the question of interest does not arise. As far as the imposition of redemption fine is concerned, we do find that once the goods a....