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TMI Blog2025 (5) TMI 1525X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ogy (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 and MRP is also affixed/printed on the same, their assessment should be under Section 4A of the Central Excise Act, 1944. Accordingly, after completing the investigation, Revenue issued show cause notice dated 02.12.2015 proposing demand of short paid Central Excise duty of Rs. 14,65,213/- alongwith applicable interest for the period from December, 2010 to March, 2015. The SCN also proposes confiscation of the goods so cleared during the above period along with penalty under Section 11AC of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with Rule 25 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002, besides, penalty on the Excise Manager of the appellant under Rule 26 of the Rules. 1.1 The show cause notice was adjudicated by the Additional Commissioner vide order dated 03.03.2017 wherein short paid Central Excise duty was confirmed upon the party alongwith interest besides equal penalty under Section 11AC of the Act read with Rule 25 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002. The goods valued at Rs. 3,86,03,676/- were ordered confiscation under Rule 25 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 and redemption fine of Rs. 14,65,213/- was imposed. Penalty of Rs. 25,000/- was imposed on Sh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ch goods under Section 4A of the Act on MRP basis is not permissible even if the goods may have been notified by the Central Government. In their case, exemption from declaring retail price on the packs of medicines, meant to be supplied to institutional consumers is by virtue of Rules 3 (b) of the Legal Metrology Rules, 2011 and therefore, assessment of excise duty on goods meant for such institutional consumers could not be permissible under Section 4A, even though MRP was declared on the packages. g) Rule 3 of the Legal Metrology Rules provides that the provisions of Chapter 2 shall not apply to package commodities meant for industrial or institutional consumers. Thus, exclusion is for the goods meant for institutional consumers and not confined only to the package commodity directly sold to the institutional consumers. h) In their case, four distributors have been authorised to deal with institutional consumers and an authority letter is invariably submitted by them with the quotation forwarded to the institutional consumers. By such authority letter, they have authorised their four distributors to quote the price for supply to the Hospitals, collect the orders, raise the b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that for there to be a requirement to print MRP on the medicines supplied to the institutional buyers, there should be an intention to sell those goods in the retail market and term "offered for retail sale" would only cover those goods which are intended to be sold in the retail market. In their case, the department has raised two objections, first, the goods are sold through the dealer/ distributor which are not institutional buyer and the second, the goods had MRP printed on them. The department has invoked Rule 11 of Legal Metrology Rule, 2011, but in the present case, there was no requirement to print the MRP, as the ultimate consumers were the institutions like Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre, INHS Asvini Hospitals, Hindustan Copper Ltd., etc. Merely because, they declared the MRP does not mean the goods should be assessed under section 4A of the Central Excise Act, 1944. He also stressed that extended period in this case is not invokable. 4. Learned Authorised Representative reiterated the findings of the lower authorities. He mentioned that the appellant has raised invoices to various buyers/distributors and not to any Government agencies directly. The exe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... from wholesale dealer for use by that institution and not for commercial or trade purposes; 5.3 Rule 2(k) of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodity) Rules, 2011 defines "Retail Packages" to means the packages which are intended for retail sale to the ultimate consumer for the purpose of consumption of the commodity contained therein and includes the imported packages: Provided that for the purposes of this clause, the expression 'ultimate consumer' shall not include industrial or institutional consumers. Further, Rule 3(b) of the said rule provides that packaged commodities meant for industrial consumers or institutional consumers would be excluded from applicability of printing of retail sale price. 5.4 The provisions of the Legal Metrology Act & Rules provide that only those supplies which are made directly by the manufacturer/ packers or where it is endorsed that these are " not for retail sale", will be eligible for exemption from printing of MRP. Fact of the case show that there is neither a direct sale of PP medicines by the appellant to the institutional consumers, nor he has endorsed "not for retail sale" on the said goods cleared to their distributors which he c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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