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2019 (3) TMI 26 - AT - Central ExciseValuation - part of final goods cleared to sister unis - related party transaction or not - Rule 8 of the Central Excise Valuation (Determination of Price of Excisable Goods) Rules 2000 - Held that:- In the first instance, the appellants have been taking a stand that they are not governed by CAS-4 standards and are not required to produce CAS-4 certificates. On the other hand, we are also unable to fathom the method and manner of working of the differential duty liability adopted by department. If they were not satisfied with appellant’s method of cost construction they should have themselves appointed a Cost Accountant as permitted in Central Excise law to ascertain the cost of production and worked out the assessable value as 115% / 110% of such cost, as the case may be, to demand any duty liability. Instead, a very discernible shortcut, not supported by any provision of law, was adopted, namely, adding 15% to their invoice prices. There are merits in the contention of the appellants that this issue in any case is revenue-neutral. Time limitation - Held that:- There is no doubt that the issue was in correspondence right from 2004. The SCN in question was however issued only on 03.05.2007. If appellants were consistently contesting their requirement to arrive at the assessable value of clearances under CAS-4, department could very well have appointed Cost Accountant as provided in the Central Excise Act, 1944 to ascertain whether the price adopted by them was correct or not. That was not done and instead, the instant SCN was issued, almost after three years after the initiation of correspondence between the department and the appellant, that too on the very dubious methodology of adding 15% to invoice prices - appeal succeeds on the ground of limitation. The appellant will succeed both on the grounds of revenue-neutrality as well as on limitation - appeal allowed.
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