2023 (4) TMI 600

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....re in appeal against the impugned order wherein demand of duty has been confirmed against the appellants and also penalties on both the appellants have been imposed. 2. The facts of the case are that the officers of Director General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI), Raipur has investigated the Unit 1 of the appellants. During the course of investigation, it was found that appellants are having the present Unit and in continuation, to that search in January 2014, the Unit was investigated. No raw material or finish goods were found and the unit was found closed during the course of investigation. Shri Pankal Agrawal, Director stated that the Unit has been closed since July 2013 and no production took thereafter. On demand, books of ....

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....d, learned AR supported the impugned order and submitted that it is a case of clandestine removal of goods and shortage of raw material without any explanation. In that circumstances, the duty is rightly demanded from the appellants. 5. Heard the parties considered submission. 6. On careful consideration of submission, we find that duty has been demanded from the appellant as further following chart : 7. On going through the said chart, demanding duty from the appellant on sponge iron @ yield of 87.03%, we find that in appellants own case, in the case of Unit 1 vide Final Order No. 51641-51642/2019 in Excise Appeal 51476-51477 of 2019, this Tribunal held that the charge of clandestine removal cannot be based on series of assumption....

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....learned Counsel for the appellant argued that crossexamination of has not been granted. On this point, we also find that it is an evidence based case as at the time of search, the raw material and finish goods were found short which is evident from the records and duty has been demanded on the basis of the said records. In that circumstances, we find that this case is based on the records found during investigation and no statement is relied to demand duty. Thereafter, we hold that the appellant is liable to pay duty on shortage of finish goods. 10. In view of this, we hold that the appellant is required to reverse Cenvat credit on shortage of sponge iron (if any) and liable to pay duty on M.S. Ingots found short. 11. The duty is paya....