TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (4) TMI 1153
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....Adjudicating Authority as per impugned order rejected the valuation under Section 4 of the Central Excise Act and held that the goods should be revalued by adopting MRP based valuation under Section 4A of the Central Excise Act, 1944, confirmed the differential demand with interest and also imposed equal amount of penalty under Section 11AC(1)(c) of the Central Excise Act, 1944. Aggrieved by said order, present appeal is filed. 3. When the appeal came up for hearing, Learned Counsel for the Appellant submits that the Appellant used to clear used LED street light fixtures to its customer by adopting MRP based valuation for the period from 01.03.2015 to 22.09.2015. However, with effect from 23.09.2015, in respect to LED street light fixtures manufactured and cleared to M/s. Havells, across India, the Appellant changed the mode of valuation from MRP based valuation under Section 4A to valuation under Section 4 of the Central Excise Act, 1944 by adopting the prices of Havells as per Purchase Order No. 4501384313 dated 05.03.2016 by affixing a label "Not for Retail Sale, for Industrial /Institutional use only". This method is adopted as per the terms and conditions in Legal Metrology....
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.... 28.2.2002 had clarified that when there is a doubt about the availability of exemption from declaring retail price, clarification is to be obtained from the Metrology Department of the State Government. The learned Counsel for the Appellant in this regard places reliance on the judgment of the Hon'ble Apex Court in case of M/s. ITC Ltd. Vs. CCE, 2004 (171) E.L.T 433(SC) wherein dispute arose as to whether the MRP declared on Cigarettes by the assessee was correct or not. The Hon'ble Apex Court held that when once the authorities administering the adherence to Standard of Weights & Measurements Act, 1976 have not disputed the Maximum retail price (MRP) declared by assessee, it is not open for the excise authorities having jurisdiction over the assessee to challenge the declared MRP. Applying the ratio of the judgement, since the goods have been cleared to institutional /industrial consumers with categorical undisputed marks on the package readings as "For industrial consumers', it is not open to the Excise Department to enter into the domain of the Weights & Measures Department. Since the Department has failed to take the correct recourse of seeking clarification from the L....
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....s is also either not clear whether or not the sales to EESL covered by the requirement of RSP and had not clarified the legal position to the Central Excise department. There is no letter on record from anybody of the Legal Metrology Department stating clearly that the bulbs sold to EESL were covered by the Legal Metrology Rules. If they were of the view that these sales were covered by the Legal Metrology Rules, having been informed by the Central Excise officers about these sales, they would have initiated action against the appellant for not printing the RSP on the bulbs. Thus, from the conduct of the headquarters of the Legal Metrology Department in Bhopal and from the explicit clarification of the inspector of that department in Bhind, it is evident that in their opinion, the sales to EESL were not covered by the Legal Metrology Rules. 20. However, since the headquarters of the Legal Metrology Department only referred to the Legal Metrology Rules and did not state that the sales to EESL were covered by them or not, the central excise officers gave their own interpretation to the Legal Metrology Rules and raised the demand through the SCN. 21. According to the....
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....tributed through EESL (though after collecting some price). If that be the case, to say that the RSP should have been printed is incongruous. How can a retail price be printed on the goods whose retail sale is banned? We, therefore, find that LED bulbs sold by the appellant to EESL were not covered by Metrology Rules and hence section 4A of the Act will not apply and self assessment has been correctly done by the appellant on the basis of transaction value as per section 4." The above decision was affirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court (2024 (20) CENTAX 440 (SC). 7. Learned Counsel further submits that Rule 2(bb) of the LMPC Rules, 2015 does not contemplate actual usage of the product. Further Rule 3 provides that the provision of Chapter II of LMPC Rules shall not be applicable to packaged commodities meant for such industrial /institutional consumers or institutional consumers. Learned Counsel further submits that it is a well settled position that the expression 'for use' does not contemplate actual use. In this regard, reliance is placed on the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of State of Haryana Vs. Dalmia Dadri Cement Limited reported at 2004 (17....
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....n the present case. The Appellants make the following specific submissions in support of this stance: i. The Appellants were and still are of the opinion that the subject goods are not be assessed under Section 4A of the CEA; ii. The Appellants were filing monthly ER-1 returns with the departmental authorities from time to time. As such there was no occasion of suppressing any fact from the Department; iii. The details of the valuation adopted in relation to the impugned goods are available in the records kept in normal course of business and the demand has been raised based on statutory records maintained by the Appellants; iv. The Department had initiated investigation on 29.03.2016 wherein the premises of the Appellant was searched and certain documents were seized. Even after recording the statements of Shri. Kran Moras, Director of the Appellant on 04.04.2016 and Shri. Neeraj Agarwal, Assistant General Manager on 29.05.2019, the department has issued SCN on 06.03.2020 i.e. 4 years from the date of investigation conducted by the department. In this regard, reliance is placed on the decision of Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Orissa Brid....