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2019 (1) TMI 964 - AT - Central ExciseClandestine removal - MS Ingots - demand based on private records seized by the department from the premises of M/s Mono Steels - reliability on statements - Held that:- No evidences have been recovered from the manufacturing premises of the appellant No. I regarding excess manufacture, clandestine clearance and excess purchases at the end of the buyers of the finished goods. The Department has also not strived to prove that as to how such a huge quantity have been manufactured and as to how such a huge quantity was ultimately sold by the appellant in the market - The Department has failed to adduce any other documents to corroborate the said recovered record. Further, the Revenue has not made any enquiries regarding manufacturing of excess quantities of finished goods as well as further sale of same in the market and has solely relied upon the entries made in the record of M/s Monu Steels for demanding central excise duty. Similarly for the record from M/s Kailash Traders as far as the raw material is concerned, Department couldn’t adduce any other corroborative piece of evidence. The law i.e. as to whether the third party record can be adopted as an evidence for arriving at the findings of clandestine removal, in the absence of any corroborative evidence, is well established - the findings of clandestine removal cannot be upheld based upon the third party documents, unless there is clinching evidence of clandestine manufacture and removal of the goods. Reliability on statements - Held that:- The statement of various persons recorded during the course of investigation can only be taken for consideration, if either there is a full proof corroboration or if the same has been confirmed under the cross examination during the course of adjudication - in the present case, neither there is a full corroboration of alleged excess manufacture or clearance or purchases of finished goods and raw material nor the statements of key persons has been established by cross-examination during the course of adjudication. Appeal allowed - decided in favor of appellant.
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