(Central Excise Duty Under Protest) The Allahabad Bench of Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) had rejected the refund claims barred by limitation under the Cenvat Credit Scheme and held that there is no provision under the Central Excise Act, 1944 & Rules made thereunder for the relevant period to enable them to pay Central Excise duty under protest.
The Bench of Sanjiv Srivastava (Technical Member) has observed that the amounts were paid by the appellant/assessee, they deposited these amounts for the closer of the proceedings that would have been initiated against them for recovery of these amounts in response to the audit objection raised. Taking note of such deposits these proceedings were initiated against the appellants.The claim that the amounts were paid in protest also do not have any merits and needs to be rejected.
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Background
The appellants/assessee were engaged in manufacture of V.P. Sugar and Molasses. They are also availing benefits of Cenvat credit scheme. During the course of audit it was observed that certain credits have been wrongly availed by the appellants.
The Appellants had reversed the amount on the direction of central excise audit parties.
The appellant filed a refund claim with the jurisdictional Assistant Commissioner claiming refund of the above amounts totally amounting to Rs.5,34,341.
After scrutiny of the refund claims, show cause notice was issued to the appellants asking them to show cause as to why the refund claim filed by them should not be rejected for want of clear, related and relevant grounds under Section 11 B of Central Excise Act, 1944.
This show cause notice was adjudicated as per the Order and has rejected the refund claims filed by the appellants. The Appellants have filed an appeal before First Appellate Authority, who has dismissed the appeals filed by the appellants.
The commissioner held that during the relevant period the assessment on monthly basis were done by the appellant themselves in the form of SELF- ASSESSMENT in ER-1. The appellant has not produced copies of such self-assessments made by them for the relevant period & since there is no indication of any provisional assessment made by them, the self-assessments were final. Also, there is no provision under the Central Excise Act, 1944 & Rules made thereunder for the relevant period to enable them to pay Central Excise duty under protest & as such their claim to that effect is only an empty formality.
Conclusion
The tribunal has held that the petitioner not only paid the duty unquestioningly and without any protest, he did not even challenge it by way of an appeal or otherwise, and has preferred this claim more than four years after the payment of duty.
The tribunal dismissed the appeal.
Case Details
Case Title: M/s Yadu Sugar Ltd. v/s Commissioner of Central Goods & Service Tax, Greater Noida
Case No.: Excise Appeal No.70105 of 2021
Date: 21/10/2024
Counsel For Appellant: Aalok Arora
Counsel For Respondent: Santosh Kumar
