OSWAL PAPER AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES Vs. CCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant (earlier known as M/s Mukerian Paper Mills), manufacture paper and paper board chargeable to Central Excise duty under heading 48.02 of the tariff. They had been availing Modvat facility in respect of capital goods under Rule 57Q of the Central Excise Rules, 1944. A show cause notice dated 23/5/95 was issued to the Appellant proposing denial of Modvat credit amounting to Rs. 60,95,279/ -. The original adjudicating authority, vide order -in -original No. 166/AC/98 dated 10/12/98 allowed the credit of only Rs. 1,07,404/ - and disallowed the balance amount of Rs. 59,87,875/ -. On appeal by the Appellant to CCE (Appeals), the CCE (Appeals) vide order dated 29/6/01 allowed Modvat credit of Rs. 3,83,990/ - and disallowed the Modvat credit of Rs. 56,03,885/ -. Both, the Department as well as the Appellant filed appeals to Tribunal against the CCE (Appeals)'s order. While the Department's appeal was rejected vide Tribunal's final order No. A/188/2002 -NB (DB) dated 4/2/02, in respect of the appellant's appeal, the Tribunal vide order No. A/338/2002 -NB (DB) dated 25/2/02 remanded the case to original adjudicating authority for denovo consideration in the light of Hon'ble Supreme Court's judgment in case of CCE, Coimbatore v. Jawahar Mills Ltd. reported in : 2001 (132) E.L.T. 3 (S.C.) and Tribunal's judgment in case of CCE, Indore v. Surya Roshni Ltd. reported in : 2001 (128) E.L.T. 293 (Tri. - LB). Assistant Commissioner vide order -in -original No. 49/AC/Denovo/03 dated 30/4/03 disallowed the credit amounting to Rs. 23,80,856/ -, but allowed the credit amounting to Rs. 32,23,028/ - and beside this, he also demanded interest under Section 11AB on allegedly wrongly taken Modvat credit and imposed penalty of Rs. 1,00,000/ - on the Appellant. On appeal to CCE (Appeals) against the Assistant Commissioner's order dated 30/4/03, the CCE (Appeals), vide order -in -appeal No. 204/CE/Jal/04 dated 29/4/04, upheld the Assistant Commissioner's order except for allowing the credit of Rs. 53,026/ -. It is against this order that the present appeal has been filed.

(2.) HEARD both the sides.

(3.) ACCORDINGLY , while the portion of the impugned order disallowing the credit of Rs. 1,75,250/ - taken on the basis of photocopies of invoices or invoices not in the name of the Appellant and not endorsed in their favour, is upheld, the portion of the order disallowing the Modvat credit of Rs. 10,88,206/ -, Rs. 4,03,351/ - and Rs. 6,61,022/ - as discussed above, is set aside. The appeal is thus partially allowed.