Customs, Excise and Gold Tribunal - Mumbai
Pudumjee Pulp And Paper Mills Ltd. vs Commissioner Of Customs And Central ... on 24 September, 2003
Equivalent citations: 2003(158)ELT859(TRI-MUMBAI)
ORDER Jyoti Balasundaram, Member (J)
1. The application for waiver of pre-deposit of differential duty of Rs. 6,41,87,322/- (duty at tariff rate less duty paid at concessional rate under Notification 138/86 and 23/94) arises out of the order of the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals), Pune, who has upheld the adjudication order under which the duty demand was confirmed as a result of classification of the disputed products, namely, Intaglio paper, SC Intaglio, Opaline, SC Kraft paper and Opaque laminating base paper under Chapter heading 48.06 and denying the benefit of exemption in terms of Notification 138/86 dated 01/03/1986 as amended by Notification 30/93 dated 28/02/1993 and Notification 23/94 dated 01/03/1994. The duty demand of Rs. 22,78,01,296/- raised in the notice was reduced to the amount finally confirmed as seen from para 36 of the adjudication order at page 101 of the paperbook. The details of the duty demand are shown in the annexure to this order.
2. We have heard both sides. The contention of the applicants is that, assuming without admitting the classification adopted by the department, the benefit of Notification 138/86 as amended (for the period up to 28/02/1994) and Notification 23/1994-CE dated 01/03/1994 for the period thereafter (the period in dispute is 01/03/1992 to 30/04/1998) is admissible as goods falling under Chapter 48 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 are covered by the above mentioned notifications during the relevant period and goods falling under heading 48.06 were not exempted from the coverage of the notification (as per amended Notification 138/86) and as per Notification 23/94 all goods falling under Chapter 48 were entitled to exemption. This contention is well founded. Regarding the other conditions in these notifications there is prima facie no dispute that they have been satisfied, e.g., one of the conditionals that the concessional rate of duty for paper and paperboards made by smaller paper mills using unconventional raw materials is available if the paper and paperboards had been manufactured out of the pulp containing not less than 50% by weight of pulp made from material other than bamboo, hard woods, softwoods, roots or rags and this condition is prima facie, satisfied as the test report shows that the paper has been manufactured out of pulp containing more than 50% by weight of pump made from bagasse. In this view of the matter we hold that a strong prima facie case for waiver has been made out by the applicants and therefore waive the pre-deposit of duty and stay recovery thereof pending the appeal.
ANNEXURE TO SHOW CAUSE NOTICE NO. V(48)17-63/VL/CL/96/1817 DATED 13.5.1998 Sr. No. Year Quantity Cleared (MT) Assessable Value Rs.
Actual duty paid Rs.
Duty to be paid @ TR Rs.
Diff Duty Rs.
11991-92 (for March) 470.386 16703496 892559 3198475 2305916 2 1992-93 7313.660 278729376 8859013 54837384 45978371 3 1993-94 7368.526 294272783 9683157 86782984 77099827 4 1 994-95 7346.631 286793246 33035900 57364109 24328209 5 1 995-96 7318.912 403989993 46767161 80798009 34030848 6 1996-97 7031.212 370571960 51347947 73668449 22320502 7 1997-98 7994.633 404503397 52448770 72810614 20361844 8 1 998-99 (for April) 685.684 32831374 4533868 5909647, 1375779 45529.644 2088395625 207568375 435369671 227801296 159114 Total differential duty be demanded 227960410 Duty amount reduced to Rs.6,41,87,322 vide order No. 1 6/DIV-II/2002 (Page 1 01 of Paper book - Para 36)