Customs, Excise and Gold Tribunal - Mumbai
Sunrise Stoaps & Chemicals Pvt Ltd & ... vs Commissioner Of Central Excise & ... on 26 April, 2001
Equivalent citations: 2001(138)ELT352(TRI-MUMBAI)
ORDER Gowri Shankar, Member (T)
1. Sunrise Soaps & Chemicals Private Ltd, the appellant in appeal E/647/94) utilises in the manufacture of soap by it of one of the specified minor oil for use of which money credit under Rule 57K was permitted by notification 192/87. The department proposed disallow credit on the ground that one of the conditions in the notification, that if of the oil is hydrogenated elsewhere than in the factory of utilisation of that oil, the procedure prescribed by notification by the Collector should be followed. In the order impugned in the appeal, the Collector finds that the procedure had been followed and that there is no case against the manufacturer on this ground. He concludes that the credit would be available on merits to this manufacturer. However, he holds that, subsequent to the use of the oil, the licence issued to this manufacturer had been cancelled and it is not therefore entitled to the credit.
2. The factory of Sunrise Soaps & Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. was taken over, by means of a lease, by Hindustan Lever Ltd with effect from 28.4.1988. The Tribunal in its decision in the appeals E/802 to 806/91) filed by Hindustan Lever Ltd had considered the eligibility of this company to utilisation of the modvat credit earned by Sunrise Soaps Ltd prior to the takeover. After considering the law on the subject, it concluded that Hindustan Lever Ltd had stepped into the shoes of Sunrise, taking over the assets as well as the liabilities that were otherwise those of Sunrise. It therefore held that such credit could be utilised by Hindustan Lever Ltd.
3. Applying the ratio of that decision, it would follow that the money credit earned by Sunrise would be available to utilisation by Hindustan Lever Ltd.
4. Accordingly, the appeal of Hindustan Lever Ltd is allowed and the impugned order set aside. The appeal of Sunrise Soaps and Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. therefore does not survive.