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2022 (11) TMI 1087 - AT - Central ExciseRefund claim of excess Central Excise duty paid - rejection of refund claim on the ground that the effective date as per the sub-section 5 of Section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1994 would be the day of issue of Notification, irrespective of the facts that whether it was published and offered for sale by the Director of Publicity and Public Relations of the CBEC, or not - principles of unjust enrichment - HELD THAT:- The background of the refund claim is that the appellant though paid excess duty but the rate of duty was revised downward by notification. Only due to the reason that system was not updated, the duty was paid on the higher rate, the appellant though shown the higher duty in the invoices, subsequently, the excess paid duty was adjusted and the same was given reduction in the subsequent updated payment recovered from buyers of the goods. To this effect, the appellant filed refund claim on the ground that the differential duty on account of enhancement rate was not payable by them due to late receipts of the Notification which should come into force from the date of its publication and offer for sale. Relevant provisions is made under sub-section (5) of Section 5A of Central Excise Act, 1994. From the said provision it is absolutely clear that any Notification issued under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2A) come into force on the date when it is published and offered for sale on the date of issue - it is undisputed fact in the present matter that the Notification were not offered for sale by the Directorate of Publicity and were put on the CBEC website on the next date around 11:45 hours on 13.11.2014 in respect of Notification No. 22/2014 –CE dated 12.12.2014 and on the late evening of 02.12.2014 in respect of Notification No. 24/2012-CE dated 02.12.2014. Therefore, both the Notification will be effective from its publication and refund on this ground is admissible to the Appellant. Principles of unjust enrichment - HELD THAT:- The ld. Commissioner (Appeals) in impugned order as regard the issue of unjust enrichment held that once the issue on merits is decided against the appellant there is no requirement of going into the aspect of unjust enrichment - Thus this issue has not been considered. Since in the present matter issue of unjust enrichment not properly considered by the Ld. Commissioner (Appeals), the matter needs to be remanded to the adjudicating authority for passing a fresh order only in respect of unjust enrichment - appeal allowed by way of remand.
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