TMI Blog2018 (8) TMI 611X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r reviewing whether or not the conditions, safeguards, procedures and limitations imposed by the notifications are reasonable and are within the powers given to the Government by the Board. Hence, powers of framing rules or issuing notifications are given to the Government which is answerable to the Parliament. It is also well known that if the Parliament feels that the notifications required amendment, they direct the Government to do so. This power of deciding or amending or revising the conditions, safeguards, limitations, etc, is not given to either Quasi Judicial Authorities or to the officers. The learned first appellate authority has clearly erred in sanctioning the refund taking a larger view of what is good to promote exports, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ules shall be debited by the claimant at the time of making the claim from the CENVAT credit. (c) The application was filed beyond the time limit prescribed under Section 11B r/w clause 3(b) of the Notification No.27/2012-CE. 3. Aggrieved, the appellant filed an appeal before the first appellate authority who vide the impugned Order-in-Appeal allowed the appeal observing that the Rule 5 of the CENVAT Credit Rules does not prescribe any time frame and as such the time prescribed for filing refund claim under notification is only for the sake of convenience and any deviation from this time limit does not alter from eligibility of availing the refund. Hence, refund claim filed by the appellant therein does not suffer from any infirm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at the end of the quarter for which the refund claim is being made or at the time of availing refund claim, whichever is less. In this case, on the date of availing of the refund claim, the balance was zero and therefore this condition was not fulfilled. (3) It was also necessary for the appellant to debit the amount claimed as refund while making the claim as per condition 2(h) of the notification which was not fulfilled. (4) Any notification is an exception to the general law and must be strictly construed unless such strict instruction gives result to absurd results as held by Hon ble Supreme Court in the case of Parle Export Pvt Ltd [1988 (38) ELT 741 (SC)]. Thus in this case, the appellant is not entitled to refund on the s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... refund claim they were under the bona fide impression that the reversal of credit was in view of the Notification No.27/2012-CE dated 18.06.2012 but only learnt later that the reversal of credit was on account of alleged irregular availment of CENVAT credit. This reversal was done only on account of pressure from the Range Superintendent. The simple question to be decided is whether the first appellate authority was correct in reversing the decision of the lower authority and sanctioning refund of the CENVAT credit accumulated by the appellant. We have considered the arguments on both sides. Refund of CENVAT credit is available as per Rule 5 of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004. Subject to procedure, safeguards, conditions and limitations as ma ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tely the first appellate authority took this position and decided to relax the conditions laid down in the notification. The five member Constitutional Bench of the Apex Court in the case of Commissioner of Customs (imports), Mumbai Vs M/s Dilip Kumar Co in Civil Appeal No.3327 of 2007 held that 20. In applying rule of plain meaning any hardship and inconvenience cannot be the basis to alter the meaning to the language employed by the legislation. This is especially so in fiscal statutes and penal statutes.......... 25. ............ equity has no place in interpretation of a tax statute. Strictly, one has to look to the language used; there is no room for searching intendment nor drawing any presumption. 7. The learned f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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