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2023 (1) TMI 876 - AT - Central ExciseWrongly availed Cenvat credit - service related to manufacturing activity of the appellant in terms of defects of import services contained under Rue 2(l) of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 or not - HELD THAT:- The place of providing services is not relevant for availment of Cenvat credit. Place, no doubt can be the place of manufacture or it can be any other place including the place of buyer. No doubt the after sale service can also be eligible for Cenvat credit as was held by this Tribunal in the case of M/S CASE NEW HOLLAND CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT (I) PVT. LTD. VERSUS COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE, UJJAIN [2021 (8) TMI 963 - CESTAT NEW DELHI] but the basic requirement is that the service should have been provided by the manufacturer or by any other person on his behalf to the consumer. Thus, even post removal service can be eligible to Cenvat credit, however, if and only if, those are provided in relation to the manufacture either directly or indirectly. From the facts of the present case, the activity in question is not provided by the appellant nor by anybody else on his behalf. It is rather the buyer of the appellant who himself has undertaken the responsibility of segregating such defective pieces where defect was not arising out of mis-handling and has charged the compensation in form of penalty from the appellant for undertaking such an activity. This particular fact is sufficient to hold that the activity was performed by the buyer for himself, as such cannot be called as eligible input service in terms of section 2(l) of Cenvat Credit Rules. The activity in question also do not qualify Rule 3 of Cenvat Credit Rules 2004. Any service to be eligible for Cenvat credit under this Rule is to be the one which has been received by the manufacturer for manufacturing final product. But the activity in question is the activity undertaken by the buyer of the manufacturer that too to ensure his right as he got reserved between the contracting parties for not receiving the damaged goods. From no stretch of imagination, said activity performed by the buyer can be called as the service which is eligible for Cenvat credit in terms of either Rule 2(l) of Cenvat Credit Rules or Rule 3 of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004. There are no infirmity in the findings given by the adjudicating authority below - appeal dismissed.
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