Customs, Excise and Gold Tribunal - Mumbai
Kosmos Co-Extrusions Pvt. Ltd. vs Commissioner Of Customs (Import), ... on 23 March, 2001
ORDER Gowri Shankar, Member (T)
1. The appeal is taken up for disposal with consent of both sides after waiving deposit.
2. The appellant claimed, and was granted, the benefit of the exemption contained in notification 203/92 on goods imported by it in terms of advance licences granted as a result of export of textile manufactured by it.
3. Notice was subsequently issued to appellant demanding duty which had been exempted on the ground that one of the conditions subject to which the exemption is available, that modvat credit had not been availed of in the manufacture of exported goods, had not been complied with. The appellant by its reply dated 21.12.1998, seen to be received in the concerned Group VII of the Custom House, contended that it had not availed modvat credit, producing in support a certificate issued by the jurisdictional Central Excise office that it was not registered with the department and was not availing modvat credit.
4. The Commissioner has apparently not considered this reply. He says that no reply was filed. He also says that nobody turned up on 22nd August, 1999 for the hearing fixed on that date. The Commissioner's order is seen to have been signed on 21st August, 1999, i.e., a day before the scheduled hearing. This support the contention of the director of the appellant, when he says that on going to the Custom House on 22nd August, 2000 he was told that the order has already been passed.
5. The order of the Commissioner hence cannot be maintained and is set aside. The appeal is allowed and the matter remanded to the Commissioner for considering the contention in the reply and passing orders according to law, after giving the appellant a reasonable opportunity of being heard.