Relief to Birla Corporation: CESTAT quashes Excise Duty Demand holding Time Barred [Read Order]

The New Delhi Bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), quashed excise duty demand holding time barred, thereby granting relief to M/s Birla Corporation Limited, the appellant.

The appeal as filed to assail the order passed by the Principal Commissioner. The matter was initially decided against the appellant which was disposed of by the Tribunal remanding the matter to the Commissioner. The impugned order was passed dropping the demand of Rs.3 crores and confirming the demand of Rs. 49 lakhs and also imposed penalty of Rs. 49 lakhs under Section 11AC of the Central Excise Act, 1944.

The Counsel for the appellant contested the demand as the Show Cause Notice was issued beyond the normal period of limitation and also contested the imposition of penalty under section 11AC.The counsel for the appellant prayed that the appeal may be allowed and the impugned order may be set aside as the entire demand was issued beyond the normal period of limitation.

In this case, not only one but several rounds of audit were conducted. Show Cause Notice was issued for the previous period on the same issue by the Revenue. Thus, the department was fully aware of the issue in question, the general marketing pattern of the appellant and it was for the officer scrutinising the returns to have checked the returns and issued SCN within time.

The Tribunal of PV Subba Rao, Technical Member and Binu Tamta, Judicial Member observed that “Therefore, the finding in the impugned order that the appellant had not provided evidence that it had provided details of the types of customers cannot be sustained. Unless the ER1 return requires such information and the appellant does not provide it or provides incorrect information, the appellant cannot be faulted and this cannot be a ground to allege suppression of facts.”

“For all the above reasons, the impugned order cannot be sustained as the entire demand is time barred” the Tribunal noted.

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