COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE COIMBATORE Vs. CEGAT CHENNAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WE have heard the learned Additional Central Government Standing Counsel. WE see no error in the order of the Customs Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal, declining to make a reference at the instance of the revenue, on the question of the liability of the assessee for payment of penal interest under Section 11AB of Central Excise Act, 1944.

(2.) IT has been found by the Tribunal that the clearance were made by the assessee during the period from September 1995 to January 1996. The law in force at the time did not permit the levy of penal interest. Such a levy came to be imposed only after passing of Finance (No. 2) Bill, 1996 which received the presidential assent on 28-9-1996. IT is evident that the amendment was effected several months after the goods had been cleared. The assessee, it has been rightly held by the Tribunal, cannot be subjected to penal levy which was not in existence at the time the clearances were effected. The fact that the demand was confirmed by the Commissioner after the law was amended, does not enable the revenue to impose penal interest, and the law which was required to be applied was the law that existed at the time of clearances, unless the law subsequently amended had expressly been given retrospective effect.