9911796707
TMI Blog2003 (8) TMI 435X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... llants manufacture ordinary portland cement; that the Additional Commissioner, under the impugned order has confirmed the demand of Central Excise duty and imposed penalty on the ground that they had deliberately not accounted for 92,000 empty bags received by them from various suppliers; that on appeal, the Commissioner (Appeals) also under the impugned order has rejected their appeal holding that the empty cement bags had been deliberately not accounted for in order to facilitate the clandestine removal of the cement without payment of duty. The learned Advocate, further, submitted that the Central Excise duty cannot be demanded and penalty cannot be imposed as the entire case is based on assumptions that 92,000 empty cement bags had been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... slips were also recovered by the Central Excise Officers and these slips contained details of goods supplied to various parties by the Appellants; that the contents of said slips were admitted by Shri Mohd. Shaffi and Shri Soni, employees of the Appellants during the relevant time; that the Additional Commissioner discussed these evidences in detail in the Order-in-Original; that the evidences were also collected to show that the Appellants had clandestinely removed cement bags without payment of duty. The learned SDR also mentioned that the Appellants themselves in their reply dated 22-12-99 after accounting for 77,500 bags had mentioned that accordingly the demand should be restricted to 14,500 bags only out of 92,000 bags; that thus thi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cement bags only. We, further, observe that in show cause notice dated 22-4-99 issued to the appellants, the details of purchase of empty cement bags which had not been accounted for has been given in detail supplier wise. The show cause notice also contains one Annexure containing the particulars of clandestine removal of cement without payment of duty and without issuing Central Excise invoices. We observe that the Appellants except merely denying the receipt of empty cement bags have not made a request to cross-examine the suppliers of empty bags. We do not find any infirmity in the findings of the Commissioner (Appeals) that In view of the details of evidence against the Appellants referred to in the impugned order, it is clear that t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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