Custom, Excise & Service Tax Tribunal
Cce, Chennai-Ii vs Shri S.C. Rajan on 4 March, 2016
IN THE CUSTOMS, EXCISE AND SERVICE TAX
APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
SOUTH ZONAL BENCH, CHENNAI
E/1432/2004
(Arising out of Order-in-Original No. 32/2003 dated 12.09.2003 passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise, Chennai).
CCE, Chennai-II : Appellant
Vs.
Shri S.C. Rajan : Respondent
Appearance Shri Veerabadra Reddy, JC (AR), for the appellant None for the Respondent CORAM Honble Shri R. Periasami, Technical Member Honble Shri P. K. Choudhary, Judicial Member Date of Hearing/Decision: 04.03.2016 FINAL ORDER No.: 40427 / 2016 Per R. Periasami Revenue filed this appeal against the Order-in-Original passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise dated 12.09.2003.
2. The issue involved in this appeal relates to manufacture and clearance of Gas Conversion Kits without payment of duty and without following Central Excise procedures. The Commissioner in his order confirmed the duty of Rs. 19,75,099/- under Section 11A(2) of the Central Excise Act, 1944.on the vaporizers, Gas/Petrol Solenoids and Tail assembly etc. and also confiscated the goods valued Rs. 47,99,112/- with an option to redeem it on payment of a redemption fine of Rs. 10,00,000/-. He has also imposed equivalent penalty under Section 11AC of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and also imposed penalty of Rs.5,00,000 on Shri N. Ramachandran, Power of Attorney of M/s. Jayalakshmi Carburetors under Rule 209 A of CER, 1944. It is the Revenue filed appeal against that portion of the order where he has held that Gas Conversion Kits manufactured and cleared by Shri S.C. Rajan are not excisable goods and not chargeable to excise duty.
3. The matter was listed on several occasions from 2011 onwards. The respondent neither appeared nor intimated. The matter was listed on 25/06/2015, 8/9/2015, 26/11/2015 and 11/01/2016. In the absence of any reply from the respondent, the Bench directed the Revenue to serve notice. The Ld. AR informs that the jurisdictional officers informed that the respondent Shri S.C. Rajan is not present in any of the four addresses. Accordingly, the Revenue appeal is taken up for disposal.
4. Heard the Ld. AR. We find that the respondent also filed appeal against the impugned order in appeal No. E/63 & 64/2004 and this Tribunal vide miscellaneous order No. 40904 & 40905/2015 dated 25.06.2015 directed Shri S.C. Rajan and Shri N. Ramachandran to pre-deposit Rs. 19,75,099/- and Rs.2,00,000/- respectively and to report compliance on 08.09.2015. Since they have not complied the pre-deposit order their appeals were dismissed for non-compliance vide Final Order No. 41600 41601/2015 dated 26.11.2015.
5. We find that the adjudicating authority held in his order that both the bought out components and the manufactured parts are put together packed in a carton box and cleared as Gas Conversion Kits. Whereas, in his findings, the adjudicating authority held that Gas Conversion Kit is not excisable. On perusal of records we find that the respondent has developed the design, manufacturing and selling of Gas Conversion Kits based on the imported Gas Conversion Kits Gas Conversion Kits. The adjudicating authority at para 72.2 held that what was cleared are individual parts. We find that the Gas Conversion Kits were cleared that brand name of Lovoto. Whereas the adjudicating authority held that the Gas Conversion Kit consists of one number each of vaporizer, Gas solenoid, petrol solenoid and tail assembly and the items do not lose their identity and there is no manufacturing activity involved. We also find that these were not cleared as parts but cleared as Gas Conversion Kits with the brand name of Lovoto. The goods are identified in the market as Gas Conversion Kits and consideration also received on not sale of parts but for the entire Gas Conversion Kits.
Accordingly, we hold that Gas Conversion Kits cleared by the respondent is amount to manufacture and squarely covered under the definition of Section 2 (f) of the Central Excise Act. Accordingly, we set aside that portion of the impugned order of the Commissioner holding that Gas Conversion Kits manufactured by the respondent are not excisable goods and chargeable to duty. Hence, the Revenue appeal is allowed.
(Order dictated and pronounced in the open Court)
(P.K. CHOUDHARY) (R. PERIASAMI)
Judicial Member Tehnical Member
BB
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