CCE, COIMBATORE Vs. GOLDEN DEW TEA FACTORY [ALONGWITH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE respondents in the appeals filed by the Department and the appellants in the remaining appeals are engaged in the manufacture of tea falling under SH 0902.00 of the CETA Schedule. They had availed the benefit of full exemption from payment of Basic Excise Duty on the product under Notification No. 41/99 -CE dated 26.11.99 for the period from 10th December 1999 to 31.3.2000. Most of them had done so by complying with all the relevant conditions including filing of undertaking with the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner/ Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise. For the next financial year [2000 - 2001], similar undertakings of these parties required under the Notification were received belatedly by the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner. In the case of the respondents in the department's appeals at Sl. No. 1 to 12, these undertakings were received by the Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner on the dates mentioned in the following table:

(2.) THE main issue arising in all these appeals is whether the benefit of exemption under Notification No. 41/99 -CE dated 26.11.99 will commence only from the date of receipt of undertaking by the AC/DC of Central Excise or whether it also covers the period prior to the said date in respect of tea cleared by a factory belonging to a cooperative society or by a bought -leaf factory during any financial year subsequent to 1999 - 2000. In two appeals [E/490/2003 and E/579/2003], a similar issue arises in respect of tea cleared from factory during a part of the financial year 1999 - 2000 viz. 10.12.99 to 31.3.2000 and 10.12.99 to 12.12.99 respectively. In yet another appeal [E/40/2005], the issue pertains to the financial year 2001 -02. Any decision on these issues would call for a correct understanding of the provisions of the above Notification.

(3.) NOTIFICATION No. 41/99 -CE reads as under: In exercise of the powers conferred by Sub -section (1) of Section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts goods of the description specified in column (2) of the Table below falling under sub -heading No. 0902.00 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (5 of 1986) from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon under Section 3 of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), subject to the conditions specified in the corresponding entry in column (3) of the said Table.