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2015 (4) TMI 735 - AT - Central ExciseArea based exemption - Notification No. 50/2003-CE - whether the appellant have expanded their installed capacity by more than 25% - Interest u/s 11AB - imposition of penalty under Rule 25 - Held that:- If the claim of the appellant is correct, they would be eligible for the exemption notification. The appellant in support of this claim rely upon the certificate dated 25 September 2003 given by M/s B.K. Arora and Associates. The Department, however, relies upon the report of Professor Arun Kumar of the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering in IIT, Roorkee. While the certificate of M/s B.K. Arora and Associates certifies that the appellant have expanded their installed capacity from 2 million CRTs per annum to 3 million CRTs per annum and this has been achieved by installing additional equipment as per the details given and by modification of certain existing machinery, Professor Arun Kumar in his report has doubted the correctness of the certificate of the Chartered Engineer and has also observed that he could not find any facility for fabrication of the machinery which are claimed to have been fabricated by the appellant in their factory. The Commissioner has chosen to rely upon the opinion of Professor Arun Kumar on the ground that he is an independent authority and his report is a later report and only a Chartered Engineer s certificate cannot wish away the expert s report . Since the Commissioner s conclusion is based on the expert opinion of Professor Arun Kumar, in our view, his cross examination by the appellant should have been permitted, as the report of Professor Arun Kumar is only an opinion whose correctness has to be tested by his cross examination. The Commissioner in the impugned order simply relies upon the IIT Professor report on the ground that it is a later report and he is an independent authority and therefore she has no reasons to doubt the same. But she does not discuss as to why the certificate given by the Chartered Engineer is not correct. - Impugned order is set aside - Decided in favour of assessee.
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