H.P.L. SOCOMAC PVT. LTD. Vs. CCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant is filing this appeal being aggrieved with the imposition penalty on him under Rule 173Q.

(2.) MATERIAL facts leading to the imposition of penalty are like this. The appellant was availing of the facility to discharge Central Excise duty liability on a fortnightly basis under Rule 173G of Central Excise Rules. Under Order No. 13/2001 -CE dated 16.4.2001, the jurisdictional Dy. Commissioner withdraw that facility for a period of two months and ordered that appellant shall pay duty for each consignment in debit to the account current. Pursuant to this order, the appellant paid duty on consignment basis at the time of clearance of the goods. However, such duty payment was made from the Cenvat credit account and not from the Personal Ledger Account (PLA). Such payment, from Cenvat credit was considered an offence under order dated 27.7.2001 of the Dy. Commissioner and he imposed a penalty of over Rs. 15 lakhs on the appellant. This penalty was equal to the duty paid by the appellant from Cenvat credit. When it filed appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals), that Commissioner upheld the order; but gave relief by reducing the amount of penalty to Rs. 50,000. The present appeal is directed against that order.

(3.) AS against the above, learned SDR contends that the Rule 173G(e) requires payment "by debit to the account current" only and not from Cenvat credit. He has also relied on two decisions of the Tribunal [Elson Packaging India Pvt. Ltd. v. CCE, Surat, 2001 (169) ELT 171, M/s Dhillon Kool Drinks and Beverages Ltd. v. CCE, Rohtak ] in support of the contention that payment in terms of Rule 173G(e)(i) takes in only debit from account current i.e. PLA and not Cenvat credit account.