Customs, Excise and Gold Tribunal - Mumbai
Tulsi Alloys Pvt. Ltd., Vinay R. Jain And ... vs Commissioner Of Customs And Central ... on 11 June, 2004
JUDGMENT Jyoti Balasundaram, Member (J)
1. Applications for waiver of pre-deposit of duty of Rs. 1,97,55,946/- and penalty of Rs. 1,51,47,537/- under the provisions of Section 11AC of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and Rs. 46,00,000/- under Rule 173Q upon M/s. Tulsi Alloys (P) Ltd., and penalty of Rs. 10,00,000/- and Rs. 10,000/- on its Director and Authorised Signatory, respectively arise out of the order of the Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs, Surat The, demand has been confirmed by holding that M/s. Tulsi Alloys (P) Ltd, clandestinely produced and cleared 64,24,098 kgs of ingots valued at over Rs. 13 crores without the cover of duty paying documents, without payment of duty and without accounting for production and clearance in statutory books during the period from April, 1996 to August, 1098.
2. We have heard both sides.
3. We find that the evidence relied upon by the Commissioner to support the finding of clandestine clearance inter alia consists of inculpatory statement of Shri Gokul Chand Sharma, who is the authorised signatory of the company, recovery of private records both from the office premises as well as residential premises of Sharma, transporters documents and statements of the Manager of M/s. Delhi-Gujarat Freight Corporation, transporters, who confessed having received ingots from the applicants for transport to Delhi.
4. It cannot be prima facie said that evidence (sic) on is not sufficient to make out clandestine removal and the submission of the applicants regarding insufficiency thereof can be gone into only when the appeals are taken up for final hearing and not at this stage. The plea of financial hardship raised by the applicants is supported by balance sheet for the year ended 31/03/2002, is responded to by the Learned SDR by stating that in a case of clandestine removal the figures in a balance sheet will never reflect a true and correct figure, and this has prima facie force. Since strong prima facie case for waiver has not been made out by the applicants, we direct pre-deposit of Rs. 50 lakhs towards duty within a period of eight weeks from today and proof of compliance to be furnished on 9th August, 2004. On such deposit, pre-deposit of the balance duty and penalties on all the applicants shall stand waived and recovery thereof stayed pending the appeals. Failure to comply with this direction shall result in vacation of stay and dismissal of appeals without prior notice.
(Dictated in the Court)