2001 (2) TMI 216

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....es were issued to M/s. Geo Enpro Petroleum Ltd. for recovery of cess on Crude oil for the period from May to December, 1996. The total amount of duty demanded under the said three Show cause notices was of Rs. 4,06,786.78. The demand arose on account of the fact that the appellants instead of paying the cess at the rate of Rs. 900/- per M.T. had paid at the rate of Rs. 853/- per M.T., in contravention of Notification No. 101 (E), dated 1-2-1989 issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gases, New Delhi. The said demand was confirmed by the Assistant Commissioner. Against the said confirmed demand, the appellants filed an appeal with the Commissioner (Appeals) wherein they submitted that the Assistant Commissioner ....

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....um and Natural Gas at the rate notified by them. Since Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has written several letters to Ministry of Finance to collect Cess at the rate of Rs. 853/- per M.T., even though there is no statutory backing to such a letter as against their earlier Notification notifying the rate of Cess, Central Excise Deptt. should have abided by the written instructions of the Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. (iv) Central Excise Deptt., cannot invoke Rule 9/49 or 173Q since this is not an excisable item as per Section 2(m) of Factories Act read with Mines Act, 1952. 3. Shri V.K. Chaturvedi, ld. SDR appearing for the Revenue, submits that under Section 15 (4) of Oil Industry (Development) Act....

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.... Revenue. We are unable to subscribe to the view of the Commissioner (Appeals) that there is some doubt with regard to the legality of the show-cause notices issued under the Central Excise Act in the instant case. As rightly pointed out by the ld. SDR, Section 15 (4) of the Oil Industry (Development) Act, 1974 clearly authorises the Central Excise Officers to collect the cess as if it is Central Excise duty and all the provisions of the Central Excise Act can be pressed in service in relation to levy and collection of such Cess. Hence, it would be improper to hold that the Central Excise Officers cannot collect the cess under the provisions of Central Excise Act, 1944. It may be a fact that the Ministry of Petroleum has given direction to ....