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TMI Blog2021 (7) TMI 179X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ression of production and clearing the same clandestinely without payment of duty and without issue of any invoices. In furtherance thereof officers of Preventive Branch of Central Excise division, Bhiwadi visited the factory premises of appellant on 30.12.2013, they checked various records/documents maintained by the appellant and also took physical stock verification of the finished goods i.e. M.S. ingots and it was found that 182.340 MT of M.S. ingots valued at Rs. 57,71,061/- involving the Central Excise duty amounting to Rs. 7,13,303/-. The officers also recovered certain documents/slips from the lab office of the appellant's company and on reconciliation thereof it was noticed that 2486 Nos. of M.S. ingots were not entered in the prod ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mpressed upon that the loose parchies cannot be the admissible evidence to hold appellant guilty. The department has failed to produce any positive evidence for proving the allegations as levelled in the show cause notice. Absence of evidence goes in favour of the appellant. Learned Counsel has relied upon the following case laws to support that the allegation of clandestine removal cannot based merely on the shortage of goods detected on stock taking nor it could be based on the recovered loose documents : (i) Smart Steels, Haryana Rolling Mill, Euro Pratik Ispat Private Limited, Pragati Ingots & Power Private Limited Versus Pr. Commissioner of Central Tax - 2019 (8) TMI 1022-CESTAT New Delhi.; (ii) M/s Bharat Alloys Private Limited Ver ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... smissed. 6. After hearing the parties and perusing the record, I observe and hold as follows that the demand has been confirmed on two counts: (1) Shortage of 182.340 MT of M.S. ingots was noticed at the time of physical verification of M.S. ingots; (2) 2486 Nos. of M.S. ingots were not found entered in the production record for the respective day. Accordingly, the clandestine clearance thereof was confirmed. I observe that there is no denial on the part of the appellant about the noticed shortage of 182.340 MT of M.S. ingots. However, it is submitted that the same has duly been explained in the terms that the defective M.S. ingots were sent for being recycled/remanufactured. Apparently and admittedly, there is no evidence on record t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... removal thereof no doubt the allegation have been confirmed based upon the loose parchies as were recovered from the lab of the appellant's premises the person namely Shri Jha in whose presence the documents were recovered admittedly has not stated anything about the documents. Apparently Shri Navnitya Prakash Goyal also has not tendered any explanation about those documents except he mentioned that the same will be explained by Shri Santosh, Lab Assistant thereof. However, no efforts were made by the appellant to produce Santosh before the adjudicating authority or too at least tendered his statement or any explanation given by him in the form of affidavit or by any other admissible mode of giving evidence before the adjudicating authorit ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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