TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (5) TMI 41
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....ated 01.03.1997 for the goods cleared by them declaring them as scientific and technical equipment. The appellant is a subsidiary of Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd (a Government of India undertaking) engaged in manufacturing various machine tools. In respect of the equipment which they cleared to institutions like ISRO, Bangalore, CMTT, Bangalore, BARC, Mumbai and VSSC, Trivandrum, they claimed benefit of exemption notification 10/1997- CE dated 01.03.1997 which reads as follows: "In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts goods specified in column (3) of th....
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....h the Government of India in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the manufacturer produces at the time of clearance, a certificate from the Head of the institution in each case, certifying that the said goods are required for research purposes only. (ii) The aggregate value of prototypes received by an institution does not exceed fifty thousand rupees. 3. It is the case of the revenue that the appellant has wrongly claimed the benefit of this exemption notification which is available only for scientific and technical instruments, apparatus, equipment (including computers), accessories, spare parts, consumables, computer software and prototype, whereas, the appellant's products are machinery falling under Chapter 8....
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....ed to the benefit of exemption notification regardless of which chapter their goods fall under, as long as they meet the description of the goods in question. It is also not in dispute that they are a Public Sector Undertaking and that they have supplied all these machines/ equipment to scientific organisations such as BARC, ISRO, etc. For instance if CNC vertical turning and boring machines are supplied, they are supplied as per specific requirement of the scientific organisation with +/- 10 micron accuracy which is required for their scientific purposes. Similarly, the rotary table sold by them is a part of the machines for accurate positioning of components to be machined without any jerks. This is an essential requirement for machining ....
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....d that they are a Government of India undertaking and had no intention of suppressing facts or wilful misstatement to evade payment of Central Excise duty and were, and continue to be, under the belief that they are not liable to Central Excise duty and are covered by exemption notification. The department has not discharged its burden of showing how the extended period of limitation can be invoked in their case. 9. Lastly, he would argue that since they were under the bonafide belief that they are entitled to the benefit of exemption notification penalty under Sec.11AC is not invokable as the department has not made out a case showing the grounds of suppression, wilful misstatement of facts, etc. The interest on the duty is also not pay....
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....d not restrict the benefit to goods falling under chapter heading. Therefore, regardless of which chapter heading of CETH the goods fall, the exemption would apply as long as they match the description of the goods and fulfil other conditions. There is no dispute regarding fulfilment of the conditions of the notification. The only question is whether the CNC machines and other equipment manufactured by the appellants specifically for supply to scientific institutions can be called scientific equipment or otherwise. This issue is no longer res integra and in the case of Autoprint Machinery Manufacturers Pvt Ltd (supra), Tamil Nadu Petro Products Ltd (supra) and Godrej Appliances Ltd (supra), this exemption notification has been interpreted b....