2025 (7) TMI 279
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....rders; hence with the consent of both sides, all these appeals were heard together and are being disposed of by this common order. 2. Brief facts are that the Appellant--Assessee procures Coconut Shells which are subjected to heating process to generate Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC, for short) which is sold. For this purpose, granulated carbonized coconut shell charcoal / granulated charcoal / coconut shell charcoal are procured indigenously from unorganized sector and also imported duty--free. There is no dispute regarding the processes involved; the case of the Revenue is that since the quality of GAC was based on its absorption capacity, the assessee did not maintain month wise daily stock account based on the absorption capacity, w....
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....he demand of duty at a substantially reduced amount of Rs.32,31,597/-- which was incidentally based also on a field study verification report dated 07.04.2011 by the Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise, Tuticorin. The above report appears to have been placed before the Tribunal vide a report dated 18.09.2012 by the Commissioner of Central Excise, Tirunelveli, consequent to which, the Tribunal vide its Final Order Nos.40632--40638/2013 dated 05.12.2013 set aside the impugned orders therein and remanded the matter back to the file of Commissioner of Central Excise, Tirunelveli to decide the issues afresh. It appears that based on the above directions, the matter was readjudicated by the Commissioner and vide a common Orders--in--Original No....
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....rification report with reference to the month--wise actual production / clearance of the GAC for the periods involved from the Assistant Commissioner, Tuticorin, in response to which, the Asst. Commissioner submitted his report dated 18.01.2022 wherein it has been categorically held that the closing balance correctly matched with the closing balance of the daily stock account maintained as on 01.07.2017. It is also reported that there was no possibility of clandestine removal. Having left with no other choice, the Commissioner / Adjudicating Authority accepting the above verification report, held that no further duty was leviable on the assessee for the goods produced / removed during the periods involved. 7. Going a step further, the Adju....
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.... production etc. The Hon'ble High Court's direction has not been taken into consideration in full, since, upon the introduction of sell--assessment, the department is only to examine the record of the Assessee and if revenue leakage is found, the same should be investigated and therefore, the burden was always on the Assessee to prove that they have assessed the goods correctly before removal and paid duty according to law. Without prejudice, the assessee had entered disorderly the production details of GAC; the Assessee had not furnished any material evidence to prove that they have not produced more than the said quantity of goods declared. The Adjudicating Authority had failed to observe that the Department had noticed the non--mai....
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.... and hence, no further duty was found to be leviable. 11. We have carefully considered the arguments advanced on behalf of Appellant--Revenue and we have also perused the relevant Grounds of Appeal urged before us. The Hon'ble High Court in the W.P.(MD) No.3378 of 2020 and W.M.P (MD) No.2841 of 2020 vide its order dt. 19.03.2021 as reported in 2021 (377) ELT 68 (Mad.) has clearly directed the Commissioner to verify the records and levy duty based on actual production / removal of the goods in question i.e. GAC. We do not find any deviation to the above order when the Adjudicating Authority has called for the verification report, perhaps for administrative convenience. Moreover, Revenue for alleging that the Commissioner has not carried out....